Flame's Shade
by AYangThang
Summary: Raven's left a legacy behind in the form of a small Faunus child. Raising a half-sister has never been so complicated, and team RWBY has their hands full in more ways than one. Eventual Blake/Ruby, Weiss/Pyrrha, Yang/Yatsuhashi.
1. Chapter 1

**Flame's Shade**

Night vision was her greatest asset as she traversed the dark city streets of Vale. The alleyways were cramped, full of homeless, drunks, and late night partiers, but she didn't pay them any mind. Her cloak outlined her dark shape, black tendrils of ribbons hoisting her up a nearby fire escape.

She climbed up, perching on another roof, jumping down, and running along the shorter buildings below. She avoided any form of light, sticking to the shadowy corners as she made haste, eager to be home and in the safety of her abode. She took a flying leap off the end of the nearest stall, leaving no trace of her existence behind. She landed deftly on her toes, and turned the corner.

Another alleyway, but this one of more friendly company. Well, friendly so long as you weren't a criminal. These were hunter's homes, and as she passed by them, she could smell the faint cooking of meals at the late night hour. Her ears twitched when she heard rambunctious shouts of glee. Team JNPR must have been back from their mission. The remaining three members were loudly chastising Nora for reasons that the figure didn't dare to find out.

Paying no mind to them, she continued onward, down another set of long and narrow passages. All of these entryways were dark, indicating the people living in these homes where either sleeping, or nowhere to be found. The huntress passed by these as well, coming to a stop. Here, nestled in the slums of Vale itself, she found herself face to face with her front door. Four insignias were burned into the wood.

Team RWBY's calling cards. This was their domain.

With a smirk, she unlocked the door, and pushed back her hood, stepping through the threshold. She closed it behind her, yanking her black cloak from her body and hanging it up, leaning heavily on the wooden door once more. Gratefully, she did away with her shoes. Stocking feet falling gently upon the smooth wood underfoot. The kitchen light was on, and she greeted the familiar inhabitant whose scent was second nature.

"Hello, Ruby."

"Hey, Blake." Ruby said tiredly, sitting at the kitchen table. In her arms there was a bundle of blankets, the likes of which Blake suspected protected rather precious cargo.

"Is that…what I think it is?" What she couldn't figure out, however, was why Ruby would be in possession of such a small child.

"And what do you think it is?" Ruby returned, her silver eyes full of something that was as distant as could be.

Blake stepped around, coming face to face with a sleeping infant. Tiny little triangle ears flicking ever so slightly in unrestful sleep. "A faunus cub…" Blake deadpanned, taking a pointed sniff. It was a baby girl. "And why do you have her?"

"Mission…" Ruby murmured, her gaze downcast once more. "It went wrong."

"The same mission Yang and Weiss followed you on?" Blake asked.

Ruby shook her head. "That one ended, they went off to report in Vacuo. This one was a solo mission, escorting a merchant to a nearby village off the coast of Vale. It was fairly close to Patch, I knew the area, so I took it." Ruby paused, words quiet, almost haunted. "It was just supposed to be a little walk, you know? Maybe a stray Grimm or two, nothing serious…but when we got there…" Ruby shook her head. "Everything was destroyed."

"Ruby, how big was this village?"

The girl shrugged. "Maybe fifty strong, at most."

"And this village in question…" Blake cleared her throat. "I'm to assume it wasn't a human one…"

Ruby's answer, while expected, was no less discomforting. "No."

Blake sighed at length. "Was it Grimm, or, something else?"

"I don't know..." Ruby began. "Grimm go crazy all the time you know. They run amok, and leave all sorts of carnage behind…but this was..." Ruby hesitated. "It was almost methodical. I didn't think there would be anything left, but I'm so glad I looked…" Ruby had no idea what to do upon retrieving the child, and had carried her back home without a second thought. "I found her, so here we are...I suppose."

"Her parents?"

"You really, really don't want to know." Ruby murmured, else clamping shut. "I didn't want to know, either."

Blake went about making herself some tea. The silence in the room heavy, and thick with tension. "And it never occurred to you to follow protocol? We have measures we take for situations like these, you can't just bring an infant home on a whim. She needs care, and we can't provide that."

"I'm not sticking her in the orphanage."

"Ruby…"

"No!"

A very loud cry tore through the room, causing Blake to roll her eyes as Ruby tried to shush the little girl back to sleep.

Somehow, the idea of tea seemed rather unpalatable under the scrutiny to those angry silver eyes. It was a feat to upset Ruby in any capacity, but anger was especially rare, and Blake found herself on the receiving end of a hard glare. "You know what they do to Faunus in those places…she'll be ignored." Ruby argued, her voice quieter but no less gentle. "You know what it's like."

"I'm more than aware." Blake hissed. "Be that as it may, we are not equipped to handle this kind of situation…and besides, think ahead more than a few hours. Do you know the first thing about keeping a baby around? Raising it? There are knives under floorboards, swords under sofa cousins, bullets in candy dishes. We can't keep a kid in a place like this."

"So we clean it up…"

"What about next-of-kin? She could have family out there somewhere."

"What are the chances of that?" Ruby asked honestly.

"Remnant is huge." Blake protested.

"Considering where she came from?" Ruby shot back, icily. Her time spent with Weiss a terrifying example of how a person could learn bad habits.

"Fine, I'll grant you that...but think of the way we live our lives. We come home from a good mission and fall asleep in a bed of beer cans. There's not exactly a lot of maternal instinct around here, Ruby." In fact, thinking about it, Blake would be ashamed of the living conditions if she stayed in the home for any length of time. The spider making a web in the corner of the ceiling only made it more true. "This is not going to work."

"It has to work, Blake." Ruby shot back, holding the child ever closer. "If it doesn't, then what's the point of anything we do?"

Sitting down next to Ruby, Blake weighed their options. "I'll take her to Menagerie. They have an orphanage there. It's not like the one in Vale...that's the best I can offer."

"This isn't up for debate." Ruby said pointedly, in her 'I'm the leader' voice. "I'm keeping her."

"What aren't you telling me?"

"Nothing."

"Ruby…we've found kids before." Blake began. "We process them, get them into the system, they either stay at the orphanage, or they go into a foster care. That's the extent of our duties, we're hunters. Our job is to slay Grimm and protect civilians. Anything beyond that isn't part of the job description."

"This one's special, Blake." Ruby said quietly. "I can prove it…but you have to hold her, and swear to me you won't move."

"If it will get you to stop being stubborn, fine." Blake conceded, willingly taking the small girl into her arms. Crimson eyes blinked owlishly, a happy little burble of sound morphing into a contented purr. Blake watched Ruby leave the room, heading off towards her bedroom, only to come back with something that floored her. "Is that, Raven's…"

"Her sword…" Ruby said darkly.

"You said her parents were dead." Blake refuted, still coming to terms with the sight in front of her.

"I told you…" Ruby began heatedly. "You didn't want to know…"

* * *

 **AYangThang:** I've been sitting on a huge hunk of chapters of this for a while, and I thought, well why not. This is a family centric fic, mostly.


	2. Chapter 2

Blake had a thoughtful list of invectives for moments like this. She had murmured a good number of them under her breath in the last handful of hours. She aimed that frustration at her scroll, nearly cracking the screen in her raw grip. "What. The. Hell."

For the umpteenth time, she received Yang's answering machine. Was it the tenth call, or the twentieth? Blake had lost count with how many times she redialed. Sucking in an annoyed breath, she slammed the scroll down and began to pace. In her mind she was slowly, meticulously, piecing together the chain of events that had brought her to this moment. Strangely, more inexplicable things had happened during her time on this team, and ever since she was a teenager, life has a knack for turning upside down.

Frankly, she should have expected something like this sooner.

The tiniest little mew called her attention, and she looked up to see the baby looking at her expectantly. Blake's ears flattened back when the baby made another sound. With renewed vigor, she clutched her scroll and dialed Yang again. It went directly to voicemail, and she cursed under her breath once more. Another mew pleading for attention sounded from the child, and Blake withheld a growl so as not to scare it. "This is asinine."

Ruby could only nod, her focus more on the sad state of the kitchen. "That's why I keep saying we need to upgrade our scrolls." If they were going to keep the baby in the house, all of the garbage and piled up fast food boxes needed to go. With two bags of recycling built up as well, Ruby was amazed the kitchen hadn't been deemed condemned months ago. "The reception is wonky as soon as you get out of the main cities." Ruby replied tiredly.

"Yang insisted you were stretching the truth to get a new one." Now that Blake knew otherwise, her ire had reached a new level. "When I get my hands on her, I'm going to staple that scroll to her ear, and plaster an antenna to the back of her head." She murmured hotly, rage in her tone. "Who goes wandering off the beaten paths like a lunatic?"

"The one who likes to live off the land." Ruby said with a tiny shrug. "Don't worry, they'll hit the main city, and all those missed calls will pop up. She'll call back, I've also left a few for Weiss."

"Assuming the inevitable is fine, but, what will we say to her, exactly?" Blake asked, looking at the babbling infant on the table before flicking her gaze over to Ruby. "This is not the sort of news you deliver over a scroll."

"I don't know…" Ruby said with a shrug, tying off a particularly smelly garbage bag. "I haven't gotten that far…I'm still trying to figure out how I'm taking all of this…I can't even imagine Yang."

"And?" Blake prompted.

"What?"

"How are you take it." Blake asked with no small amount of trepidation.

"I don't know." Ruby said softly. "I've always wanted a baby sister…but not like this..."

"Huh, I thought you were happy being the youngest." Blake said, trying to drag her gaze away from the baby who kept mewing at her. She knew the child had a sense of smell...could tell who was and wasn't Faunus by that alone. Still, she had no intention of responding back. "I was an only child, so I don't even know what it's like to have an older sister, much less a younger one."

Ruby latched onto the casual conversation like a leach. "I know a lot of people get all annoyed about being the middle child, but I'd bet it would have been awesome from my perspective." Ruby deposited everything outside before coming back and washing her hands. Then she began rummaging around in the fridge. "I guess it doesn't matter. Yang and I made due with the fact that we would be it. Dad couldn't deal with another spouse, so…no new mom, no new sibling…I won't lie, I don't think I would have been okay with having a different mom anyway."

"Ruby, you can't give that to the baby." Blake said, gesturing to the carton of milk and the clean rag Ruby had gathered. "She's a cat Faunus just like I am. We're lactose intolerant."

"You drink milk all the time." Ruby protested. "Besides, she needs to eat something."

"We grow into it, and even I can't drink anything thicker than one percent. I'd be in the bathroom all day…"

"Well then, what do you suggest?"

"Formula…preferably soy."

"We don't have any, and she's probably hungry. What do you want me to do?"

Another little mew, and Blake turn her attention to the cub, who then began to purr happily. Blake could feel her temper slipping. "Well excuse me for failing to put baby crap on the shopping list last week…didn't realize your extended family would be purring on the goddamn table." She snapped, only to look down at the red-eyed child that was now in their care. When no retort came, Blake let loose a long held sigh. "…I'm sorry…that was uncalled for."

"I know she's dead, I saw her body...I buried her..." Ruby was quiet for a moment longer. "What am I going to tell Yang?"

"The truth, as gently as possible." Blake said, plucking at the blanket idly. "More importantly, what are we going to do until then? We don't have any baby stuff, and you and I do a lot of charity work. We're not the ones grossing in the high salaries." That privilege went to Weiss, the real breadwinner of the team. Yang's profits were a close second.

Ruby didn't know. "Well, if we stick to the basics…"

"Speaking of basics, we're down one hunter." Blake pointed out. "We can't exactly sling a baby over our backs and go fight Grimm...if she's family, we can't very well get rid of her...but we can't exactly cart her around in the woods, either. Someone is going to have to say home."

"Well…never mind that for now. We need groceries. Weiss did leave the spare credit card." Ruby said, looking up to where it was kept, hidden behind one of the wall tiles near the sink. "We could always use that."

"We don't exactly have a choice…shit…" Blake bit her lower lip.

She watched those little Faunus ears twitch, and she knew there was a world of questions that Ruby just wouldn't have answers for. Now, no one would, and she didn't dare think of what that might do to Yang. Her dealings with Raven hadn't exactly been positive, and neither one of them had a good long talk about the past. The woman's exploits seemed to come and go as time went on…but to Yang, Raven was still a mystery that would never be solved.

"…Ruby?"

"Yeah…"

"You didn't happen to pack a diaper bag or anything like that, did you?" Blake wondered as a realization wafted to her nose.

"I wasn't going to stay around there any longer than I had to." Ruby murmured, ear to her scroll. If they couldn't get a hold of Weiss and Yang, maybe she could get her uncle to pick up. "Why, something up?"

Blake's aggravated sigh permeated the room once more. "She just peed."


	3. Chapter 3

"Well, I must say, this is thoroughly degrading." Weiss pointed out from her place on Yang's back. It was merely a sprain that did her in, but getting carried through the streets of Vale was not her idea of a good time.

"We got flung into a tree, fell into a mud pit, our hotel was smashed up by a pissed off Ursa, and this is the part you find degrading…" Yang ranted, lamenting all of the junk in her hair.

"We could have done without rattling the shipment of aura enhancers. I told you the container was volatile the moment you picked it up. Honestly, I'm surprised you weren't injured."

"Oh, it hurt like hell." Yang shot back, looking over her shoulder and regretting it. "When that stuff combusts, it hits like a truck…I'm just built to take it, unlike you. How's your ankle feeling?"

"It'll be fine." Weiss said, crinkling her nose in disgust. "You have dust shards in your hair. I'll let you use my products as soon as we get back to the house." Weiss promised, ever so gently plucking a few more leaves that were glued in with mud. "I have some conditioner that should smooth these tangles right out."

"Thanks, I'd appreciate that." Yang rounded the corner, and into the alley.

Pyrrha was outside sweeping the front stoop. "Hello you two. Rough mission?"

"You…could say that." Weiss replied, arms crossed as Yang came to a stop. "Not our finest hour, I assure you."

"It frickin' sucked." Yang said, plucking at her currently tarnished pride.

"Sod's law." Weiss agreed. "How was your mission, I know it was longer than you expected."

"It was alright." Pyrrha replied, glancing back to her home, her voice dropping a little. "Jaune cracked his shield, so he's been kind of down lately. We've sent it in for repairs, but you know how he is...do you mind if I ask, what is sod's law, exactly?"

"Anything that can go wrong, will." Weiss explained, and then tapped Yang's shoulder. "Put me down, will you. I'm sure I can hobble from here."

"Nothin' doing. Ruby would shit a brick if I let you walk in the door like that." She did adjust the woman atop her back though, a little bounce hoisting her up slightly, and off a pressure point. "Anyway, I got a date with the shower, catch ya later?"

"Indeed." Pyrrha said waving them off. "Have a pleasant day."

"To you as well." Weiss called back, but, Yang was fairly eager to hit the front door as soon as possible. In her exuberance, she nearly flung it off the hinges, causing Weiss to roll her eyes. "You're a bull in a china shop."

"Yeah, well we both reek like one, might as well act like it." Yang said as she made a bee-line for the kitchen. Yang pulled a plastic baggy containing two broken scrolls and chucked them onto the table. "Huh, guess they're not home."

"They're probably out shopping. Someone else besides me was clearly uncomfortable with all the mess." Weiss pointed to behind the counter. "Look, the sink is empty."

"Can't remember the last time that happened." Yang chuckled, heading for the back of the house. A single bathroom was shared by the four of them, a setup that they'd long grown used to back in Beacon. They'd even doubled up on shower heads after moving in so that they could conserve the hot water. It was times like these, that they were thankful for such renovations. Seeing themselves in the mirror, Yang offered the only reasonable solution for the amount of disgusting filth caking the both of them. "I'll wash your hair, if you wash mine

"Yes, I believe that would be agreeable…" Weiss grimaced, yanking a hunk of god-only-knew-what from the back of her long ponytail. It was squishy, tar colored, and frankly, that was all Weiss cared to know. "Please do."

* * *

Blake tried to recall the last time she ever got lost in a store. After a run to the corner for soy milk late last night, they both realized that watching a child was no small undertaking. Now, with several bags in and, and a full backpack of supplies each, Ruby and Blake now had what was deemed by the store clerks as the baby basics. Somehow, Blake was sure they were getting duped.

Regardless of if they were or not, after the near five hour screaming fit in the middle of midnight, she wouldn't dare be unprepared for when the baby started crying again.

One of the purchases they'd made was a sling, which Ruby had tied onto herself before they'd even exited the store. "Bottles, bottle brushes, two kinds of nipples, three kinds of diapers, wipes, rash cream, binkies, Faunus safe formula, burp cloths, no tears shampoo and conditioner, a pack of short sleeved onesies, a pack of long sleeved onesies, five baby sacks…" Ruby trailed off, scanning the receipt and feeling a little bit queasy. "Baby claw clippers? I didn't put those in the basket."

"I did." Blake said with a roll of her eyes.

"She doesn't even have claws!"

"Our finger nails are thicker than yours, hence claws. My clipper is too big to use on her, I'd be afraid to hurt her." Blake said as she took her own fingers and pushed them back. When she did this, the tips of her nails grew out. "All cat Faunus have claws, Ruby, we just manicure them down so that they don't grow long, sharp, and pointy. She's liable to scratch herself, or us for that matter, if we don't."

"What happens if you let them grow out?" Ruby asked then curiously.

"Well, they're retractable, so if I extended them unclipped, they would curve around the tips of my fingers. I keep them short enough that even extended, they don't curl around, see?"

Ruby nodded, skipping to the grand total at the end of the long bill, the sticker shock was still bothering her. "We just spent over two-hundred lien…Weiss is going to kill us."

From inside the sling, the small baby started to meow, and chose to do so incessantly. "Here, Ruby hand her to me." Blake said, shuffling the groceries and the baby around until Ruby was carrying the plastic bags, and Blake was now cradling an inquisitive Faunus in her arms. The mewing dulled to a purr when that free hand soothed the tiny twitching ears that swung around like tiny radar atop the girl's head. "I really wish Yang would hurry her ass up and call us back."

"You and me both." Ruby said as they crossed the alleyway in relative silence. "I just…" Ruby's eyes flicked over to the baby. "What if she hates her?"

"Um, Ruby, of the many things we need to be worried about, and I admit, that list grows by the second, I don't think Yang could ever hate an innocent baby."

"I don't know about that."

"Hmm." If it were anyone else other than Yang, Blake would have jumped directly to the obvious. That the girl was Faunus, not human. However, knowing Yang like Blake did, that was simply impossible. She had never known Yang to hate a Faunus for simply being one. There were a few choice words she had about particular ones, Adam included, but that was because of his bad attitude, and his affiliations. Not because he had horns on his head. The other obvious conclusion might be a misguided sense of jealousy…but Blake also tossed that aside too.

Yang, for all of her bad temper, was one of the most maternal figures Blake had ever known.

After a few moments, Blake cleared her throat. "Why do you think Yang will hate her?"

"Because it would be easier to hate her. It would be easier to just…turn our backs, and pretend this didn't happen…it can be another family who had a tragedy." Ruby explained, pulling out the house key, not an easy feat with her arms full. "It doesn't have to be us again…this…always happens to us."

"If she's going to end up hating anyone, in any of this, it'll probably be herself." Blake surmised, the very thought worrying her as well. "But it's not just you two anymore. This isn't someone else's tragedy. It's ours, We're a team, and we'll figure this out, Ruby. I promise."

They pushed passed the front door, And Ruby very nearly tripped as she halted. Frozen stiff. Yang was sitting on the sofa, a beer in hand, and her bare feet up on the coffee table.

"Hey guys!" Yang greeted lazily, waving at Blake, who could only swallow hard. "Great to see ya grabbed so groceries."

"Y-yeah, groceries…" Ruby trailed off. "I'll…um…I'll just be right back."

"Uh, okay." Yang raised an eyebrow. "Well, that was weird, she on the red or something?"

"No…nothing like that, but…it's complicated." Blake forced out, her voice edgy at best. As she sat down, Faunus cub still cradled to her chest, she gave Yang one of the softest looks she could muster. "We need to have a long talk."

"Uh-huh…" Yang sat upright then, another sip of beer and she set it off to the side. "So, what's with the kitten, kitten?"

"That's what we've got to talk about, but I don't know how to make this any easier." Ruby interrupted. "So I'd though I'd just…show you…" She re-entered the room. Weiss hobbling behind her. The once exhausted ex-heiress looked as if she'd seen a ghost, in spite of just coming from a long, hot shower. Ruby placed the sword that was in her hand onto the table, and then sat down on the floor in front of it. "This…is Raven's sword…and that baby…that's our little sister."

* * *

 **AYangThang:** Don't worry guys, I won't leave you hanging on this for too long. Hope you all enjoyed it.


	4. Chapter 4

Ruby detailed the mission. The shock. The discovery. The aftermath.

A simple little village off the coast of Vale destroyed, and Ruby didn't even know who might have done it.

Yang knew of the town, hell, everyone from Patch did. It would be greatly missed. A lot of fishermen lived there, so buying food was easy and cheap. The ferry shuttled people back and forth from the smaller islands around Vale. As kids, their father would take them on that boat all the time. It was much slower than taking an airbus, but as a little girl, Yang had loved the sea air.

Hearing that it was gone hurt. It was also the most believable part of Ruby's story. She wouldn't make something like that up. As further proof, Raven's insignia on the bottom on her sheath spoke plenty of who owned it. Yang could believe that Raven might get around, that she might have more than one man in her life….she could even accept that she might have another sibling or five, living lives in corners of the world.

Yang could not fathom, however, that Raven was dead.

That Ruby had chosen to bury the woman by hand, all by herself. She looked over at Weiss, who was currently holding the small black haired, black eared cat Faunus with red eyes. Bottle in hand, Weiss marveled as the baby suckled from it greedily. Blake was nearby in case things turned sour. Yang eyed the scene with trepidation. She couldn't believe that this Faunus infant was her baby sister.

…But, if there were ever a question of what Yang had been told…this proved something to her. Raven, on some level, had been a sentimental person. That underneath all of her mystery, she had goals, and things she cared deeply about.

"So, that old village, huh?" Yang said, more as a way to absorb the information, rather that repeat it. "Uncle Qrow and Raven…they grew up there…in that village…they were orphans, but the people there knew them…so…"

Ruby nodded. "Uncle Qrow used to say it all the time that they never had a real home, but they never really needed one…"

"But why…after all this time…" Yang forced out a long, tedious breath. One carrying years of questions, anger, worry, and confusion. It was riddled with the holes of abandonment, and oozing in the bitterness of failure. Loss was a distant thing, no more than a dull ache. Not a sharp stabbing throb, like the kind she felt when Summer Rose died.

She wished she felt worse, honestly…that she felt the way a person should feel when experiencing the loss of a parent, but Yang simply didn't.

"That's what I don't get…is why…" Yang murmured slowly. Fingers gliding along the condensation of her beer. "Why would she go back there? And why stay long enough to get pregnant? I thought she hated the idea of kids…never stuck around for me, anyway. Can't imagine she'd have a change of heart." Yang scratched the back of her head. "Are you sure that she wasn't just there at the wrong time…that all of this isn't just a coincidence?"

"I…kind of wish it was…" Ruby said guiltily. "I don't think it is, though."

"You won't know without DNA tests." Weiss said rationally.

"Yeah…you're right…" Yang sighed.

"Sooner rather than later would be preferable." Weiss prompted again. "We need to know for a fact what we're dealing with."

"I just…" She swallowed hard. She looked to Blake, golden eyes full of sympathy that Yang didn't want. "No…you're right…sooner we get this done…the better…tomorrow, we'll go, get it done."

* * *

It was going to be easy, right? They were hunters, and asking for that kind of test was simple enough. A quick cotton swab inside of the cheek, and a lock of hair from each of them as a control test. Toss down a little money, bingo, done deal. With the latest advancements, they could have the answer in a few days. The wait wouldn't be long, but it sure felt like it.

Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow….tomorrow…it was the mental chant they all used to get by. Yang had mindlessly gone through the motions of the past several hours. Eating dinner, doing the dishes, sitting in front of the sofa, nursing a beer or three…trying to wait for daybreak so they could do the test, and she could go distract herself. She wanted, needed that distraction now.

Her mind was scattered.

In the mess of purchases, Ruby had bought a fold-up bassinette made for camping. The baby was currently inside of it, mewing. At first it was just white noise. Babbling, little more. Then it turned to a pointed cry…a baby's cry. Yang looked at the youngster, whose ears were flattened back, and eyes were closed. Rosy cheeked, tear stained, aggravation at its finest. It was the first time that the realization had registered all day.

This baby had no one.

It was alone now… _she_ was alone…and something about that, frankly, pissed Yang off. So what if Raven was the kid's mom? So what if she wasn't? Raven had been there, and that was enough reason for Yang to blame the woman for this entire mess. Reaching in, she ever so gently picked up the crying baby, and held the child to her chest with care.

"I'm sorry." She murmured, feeling the baby's ear flick against her chin. "I'm sorry…"

After some time, the little girl quieted. Yang tried to put her back, but to no avail. The baby began crying as soon as Yang tried to put her in the fold away bassinet. She paced back and forth, but as soon as she tried to put the baby down, she'd start crying once more. Yang finally gave up, settling herself in the bay window. Not that there was much to look at.

Well, nothing besides other hunter's homes.

"Bet you don't even have a name, do you?" Yang said, holding the baby close in the dead of night. "Be just like her…leaving you behind without one…what was she an idiot?" The question was meant to be rhetorical, but she found herself answering it anyway. "Who am I kidding, you probably have a name. Dunno what it is, wish I did, but I don't…there's so much that I just don't know…"

The small child started mewing, and Yang mimicked an action she'd seen Blake do earlier. Rubbing the tips of the baby's ears gently in a small little circles. As she did this, she continued her train of thought. "Raven was there, so she must have had a reason to be…wish I knew which one of us was better off." Yang looked down. "Me, or you?"

Then she turned her gaze back to the window. "Ya know, I used to think the same thing about me and Ruby…always wondered which one of us was better off. Never did figure that out. And that's another thing. Why do I have to be the responsible one? Whatever happened to livin' my own life for a change? I had Ruby on my hip my whole life, and now there's you…and damn you're cute…but come on. Where's the justice here?"

Yang knew she wasn't going to get a reply. The baby couldn't talk yet, after all, and there was no one else in the room. "I've got a weird family, kiddo…it's not exactly a family you brag about, but it's mine…and I guess, it's yours too…maybe."

The young Faunus purred contently, and Yang continued to sit and look out the bay window. "Wonder what your dad was like…if he's still out that. He could be. I mean, what if the guy Ruby found wasn't your dad? What if that was your uncle, or a friend of the family, or something? You'd still have a family, then. They'd probably be a Faunus just like you…maybe you'd be better off with them…" When tiny eyes opened Yang felt a pang of remorse at even thinking it. "Don't look at me like that…"

When the infant mewed, Yang sighed. "You just like me because I know how to give good ear rubs." The baby mewed again, almost as if to agree.

"I don't know if we can do this." Yang said softly, her fingers pausing again, prompting another little mew. "Hey, it would be different if you were like five or something. I know how to be a fun big sister…but you…you're just a little thing." Yang's voice grew quiet then. "I mean, let's be real here. I don't know how to take care of a baby…it was different with Ruby. My dad and uncle were the adults. They did the parenting. Ruby and I aren't that different in age. I did big sister things…not exactly parent things…unless it was a girl thing that a guy would screw up…but you catch my drift."

Tiny ears flattened back, and the baby gave a big yawn. "Yeah, yeah, see you're tired…and all you do is cry when I put ya in the stupid basket thingy. Even now, I'm completely sucking as a responsible adult. Can't even get a baby to sleep. Pretty damn pathetic…I mean just look at us. What the hell kind of cosmic crapshoot did we sign ourselves up for? This just isn't right…"

* * *

 **AYangThang:** I will say one thing, Yang was fun to write in this chapter.


	5. Chapter 5

As hunters, they had two choices. Become hunters for hire, working for profit. Or, to become hunters for charity, working for, or below the cost of the mission. Travel across remnant wasn't exactly cheap. Airfare was only one cost of many. Combined with food, a place to sleep, weapon care and many other expenses, it added up. Team RWBY stuck together after graduation, as many hunter teams tended to do. Ruby and Blake took payment when it could be afforded, and accepted when it couldn't be. Weiss and Yang worked for profit only, unless there was a mission that Ruby or Blake insisted on, requiring a four man team.

Even hunters that worked for profit didn't live wealthy lives. It was accepted and understood that only particularly large or dangerous Grimm offered huge payouts. They lived comfortably enough, but, that didn't mean they could be tactless with their earnings. Because of this, Weiss and Blake took care of the book keeping. Between the four of them, it was normally a very lazy, comfortable way to live.

Although, there was one complaint among all of them. They lived in an old house. Two bed rooms, one bath. As dorm mates, they'd gotten used to the idea of no privacy, but even the best of friends got sick of each other. For Ruby, it was one of those kinds of nights. With every step Weiss made, a bare foot would make contact with the exposed floor.

"Ugh, Weiss..."

"What?"

"Stop."

Every second step, Weiss took a breath out of pain. Every third, the wood would creek. Ruby's ears were assaulted by the noise.

"No."

"Then go pace around in circles somewhere else."

"I said, no."

"Weiss…I'm tired, go away."

"Ruby, do you truly believe that the cat Faunus in the living room is Yang's half-sister?"

"No, she's a lonely little orphan from the moon." Ruby groaned sarcastically. "Yes, that's our sister! Now stop being dumb. I wanna go to sleep…"

"It isn't dumb to be thorough." Weiss shot back. "Technically, would she even be your sister? Legally speaking, I mean."

Ruby sat up, squinting in the dark at Weiss incredulously. Not that she could see anything, but she could glare anyway. "I don't know, and I don't care. She's Yang's sister, and since Yang's my sister, it doesn't matter."

"It would matter to the courts…you don't share a blood relation."

"We're family, okay? Go. To. Sleep."

"What if the child isn't related to Yang…"

"Weiss, they are related." Ruby deadpanned. "Trust me."

"But, what if?" Weiss asked. "What if she has a proper family out there? We will have to give her back. You understand this, right?"

"Yes."

"Ruby, I'm just trying to think rationally." Weiss replied. "It could be a coincidence. It could be staged. A trap. Why would one lonely baby survive a massacre? What if she has affiliations with the White Fang, or worse? I don't want you giving this child, or Yang for that matter, false hope if there is none...we could be meddling in something very dangerous."

Ruby blinked, dumbfounded. "Weiss...there's a better chance of a nevermore taking a huge shit on my head, than what you just described...can I go back to sleep now?"

"How you can sleep at a time like this is beyond me…"

Ruby grabbed her pillow and flung off the sheets. Opening and closing the door behind her. She crossed the hall and went into the other bedroom where Blake and Yang bunked. Pairing off as bunk mates made sense. It was what they were used to. Now, however, Ruby really wished she wasn't roomed with Weiss, who was high-strung as ever. When she entered, she noticed Yang's bed was empty, and Blake was up reading.

"Oh, not you too! Doesn't anyone know what sleep is around here?" Ruby asked. "And where's Yang?"

"Yang is out in the main room." Blake said. "With the baby."

"Wait, what? She didn't think to bring the bassinet in here?" Ruby asked, dumbfounded, and now, grouchy. "She's not sleeping across that sofa is she?"

"The bay window, last I looked." Blake replied, idly turning the page. "I put a blanket around them."

"Them?" Ruby shook her head.

"She was sleeping curled inside the bay window. Yes." Blake said again. "With the baby in her arms. I wasn't about to try to disturb the peace."

"Blake, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there a crack in the bay window?"

"That's why I gave them a blanket." She returned.

"So my sister...is sleeping in front of a drafty, busted window, with a baby. And that's full circle. That's it, I'm going to bed before it gets worse." Ruby claimed Yang's empty bed, hunkering down. "Nighty-night Blake."

"You're sleeping in here?"

"Yes...please in here. I don't want to sleep on the sofa, and I'm not going back in my room." Ruby half grumbled and half begged. "Weiss is being…for a lack of a better term, Weiss…and it's driving me nuts. So please, can I just lay down and close my eyes? Pretty please?"

"I see." Blake murmured, reaching over and turning out the light. Her eyes would adjust naturally soon anyway. "Well, alright then. Night, Ruby."

"Goodnight, Blake." Ruby sighed, thankful that the resident night owl was so accommodating. "And really, sooner or later, try to get Weiss to stop going in circles. She's going to make her ankle worse."

* * *

It was nearly four in the morning when the baby girl decided to scream her head off, waking Yang with what could only be called yowling. Yang, for her part gingerly put the bay back in the crib, eyeing her as if she was some sort of ticking time bomb.

A much lower pitched meow bounced off the walls, and the infant paused in her screeching. Blake, now in the room made the same sound again, but gentler. The baby mewed in reply once more as Blake came into view. Golden eyes bore into red with a headed glare of aggravation. Another little mew greeted her ears, and Blake grumbled another sound back in reply...then she turned to Yang.

"Yang…" Blake said, bathrobe slung and tied haphazardly around her nightgown. "The baby's hungry."

"Ya think?" Yang asked darkly. "What the hell was that about?"

"It's the tone of her call." Blake said as she picked up a full bottle that had been rejected about two hours ago. "I'll go make a fresh one."

Yang scooped the child back up and followed Blake into the kitchen anyway, frowning deeply at the implications. "I'm fine…"

"I know you are." Blake said quietly. "Or, at least, that you're trying to be."

Yang swallowed back another retort. Accepting the fact that Blake wasn't going to press any further than that. "Anyway, what do you mean…the tone of her call?"

"Exactly as I said. There's no hidden meaning. I can understand her because I'm a cat Faunus. Her noises are actually similar to words for me…" As Blake said this, back turned, measuring out the powdered mix, she was sure to weigh her words carefully. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"That fact that you two were just...well whatever the hell that was...at each other?"

"Don't act like a jerk." Blake chastised. "You know what I meant."

"Yeah…guess I should talk about it…I mean, it's normal to feel all screwed up after a day like today, right?" Yang said awkwardly. "It's not like I was thinking anything complicated. It's just…I was wondering, what's the point of knowing?"

"Hmm?"

"If she's my sister...or not…I just don't think I want to know…"

Blake's ear flicked. That was the most telling action Yang would ever receive. Confusion and trepidation all rolled into one. Blake said nothing to any of it, so Yang knew it was an invitation to keep going.

"My mom was involved…that's reason enough not to know." Yang sighed, angry at the very idea. "Her parents are gone…my mother was dead in the house. It doesn't matter if we're related or not. Her family's gone…they're _gone_ …and they're not coming back. What are we going to do if those tests come back negative, Blake, toss her out on the street? Wash our hands of her? I'm _NOT_ Raven…"

"Yang, you need to know." Blake told her placidly, handing Yang the warmed bottle. "We all do. Raven has left you with way too many questions you'll never have the answer for. Don't let this be one of them. The answer doesn't have to change the outcome…and whatever you want to do, I'll help, no matter what...but for the sake of knowing...find out for sure."


	6. Chapter 6

"Naturally, I would have gone with them, too...if I didn't have this mess to deal with. How can they expect me to keep the books balanced when they make these kinds of expenditures? And to tack on two new scrolls on top of it…I'm not made of money anymore, this is ridiculous." Weiss said sitting at a terminal at the kitchen table.

"It sounds complicated." Pyrrha replied, holding her scroll up and away from the light of the sun. Already she was away on another mission, this one much closer to home. A small horde of bug Grimm were making a nest in someone's basement. "I wish Ruby or Blake would have called us if they were struggling so much that first night. I could have sent Jaune over to help."

"Jaune?"

"Well, he _is_ an uncle, several times over." Pyrrha reminded her. "He's very good with children."

Weiss nodded, offering her own little interesting tidbit. "Blake seems to understand her…though I'm not entirely sure how. I've learned to stop asking Faunus related questions. They baffle me anyway…but it is interesting to listen to…"

"To what?" Pyrrha prompted, seeing the small moment of apprehension on her friend's face.

"Well, as racist as it may sound…it was as if they were cats...communicating."

"Please tell me you're joking."

"I'm not." Cup of warm coffee in hand, Weiss took a sip and shook her head. "…Pyrrha, I promise you, I wish I was being as crass as I'm sure I sound. I woke up to the sounds of two cats fighting this morning. I honestly thought there were actual cats arguing on the dumpsters again."

"That…well, that's rather remarkable."

"I know." Weiss said, no venom in her voice in the slightest. Just fact, and the slightest bit of good humor. "I've heard Blake purr before, but I never knew how….vocal…Faunus could be. It's alarming when you least expect it…" Then, something else popped into her mind. "This is an entirely hypothetical question, but since the baby is a Faunus, would Yang be able to claim her as a dependent? Vale's tax laws are different from Atlas."

"Hmm, well wouldn't you know, I haven't the foggiest idea." Pyrrha said thoughtfully. "I mean, I would certainly hope so. If Yang is the older sister, as everyone seems to think."

"See in Atlas, that wouldn't matter. Atlas doesn't offer the legal guardians of Faunus any sort of services monetarily." Weiss explained.

Pyrrha chose to tactfully switch gears away from such places. "If I may be so bold, if this is to be a permanent arrangement, it might be better to have someone formally adopt her. Vale gives much more consideration to single parents who are hunters. For example, from what I understand, a hunter's medical coverage does not extend to a child in the case of siblings."

"Only parents to offspring?"

"Yes. At least, that's what I have come to understand." Pyrrha nodded.

"Even if Yang would be her legal guardian?" Weiss queried, eyebrow upraised.

"That would depend on the parents. Vale may award custody of the child to someone named in the will and wishes of the deceased…that is, of course, assuming the child's parents _had_ one written out."

"Something to look into, then." Weiss murmured, more to herself, than Pyrrha. "On another note, you should stop by for a visit after your mission. I'm sure we'd be able to talk Blake into some three handed pinochle."

"Oh, and I do love a good game of cards." Pyrrha said hopefully. "I have some choice wine sent to me by my parents just last week. It's far too much for one person, so, perhaps you all would be inclined to drink it with me? I'd ask Jaune, but he's not fond of the beverage, and you know how Nora is…"

"If it doesn't come in a shot glass, or with an umbrella, she wants nothing to do with it. Just like Yang in that aspect." Weiss said knowingly. "What about Ren?"

"He drinks rarely. Also, our flavor interests differ greatly, or so I've noticed. He didn't grow up on wine at the dinner table as you and I did as children, so his tastes revolve distinctly on whatever can be made into a mixer."

Weiss laughed at that. "I suppose that makes sense. Well, I'd be happy to drink it with you, a quiet evening around here might do us a bit of good…although, that being said, planting a seedling in Nora's ear about getting Yang out of the house…" Weise trailed off as Pyrrha began to smile.

"I understand." Pyrrha agreed sympathetically. "I'll see what I can do."

* * *

"I don't know if this is such a good idea." Yang said reluctantly as sat on the bed in her room. Blake had set out for her one of Yang's favorite things to wear when going to the nearby bar. "I probably shouldn't."

"Yang…look at me."

To the blonde's credit, she did. It took effort, though. A great deal of it. "Things are going to change around here a lot because of circumstances, but no one expects you to change who you are as a person on top of it. There's four of us, and only one of her."

"Yeah…but-"

"No buts." Blake cut her off, sitting down beside Yang. "I'm not telling you to go out and get trashed. I'm telling you to go order your favorite pizza, shoot some pool, and enjoy some time with a friend."

"She needs me to be a good influence, going to the tavern is a terrible influence."

"She needs you to be you, Yang."

"I'm no good as me." Yang shot back. "Have you seen me? I'm a total and complete wreck, as me."

"Ruby seemed to survive you just fine." Blake deadpanned. "Not to mention your uncle for that matter. The man practically sends his liver swimming every day, but he's always been there for you."

"That's completely different."

"No it's not. I know what you're thinking, but, like you said. You aren't Raven…" Blake told her. "You will be here when she needs you to be…but right now she's taking a nap, and doesn't need any of us anymore than Vale needs ursa."

Yang let out a small laugh at that. "She's not going to be sleeping that long."

"True, but you have three willing babysitters. This isn't just about you, it's about our friends too." Blake sighed. "Pyrrha's coming by to play cards. Ren and Ruby are going off to do some sort of meditative training. Jaune's going to go visit one of his sisters. Nora's going to be bored if she's alone all by herself. I know you think that this baby is entirely your responsibility, but I've told you before. We will help you. It's not a burden to keep her with us for an evening."

"Yeah…" Yang took a breath. "Yeah…okay…a pizza in Vale sounds good, and haven't had the chance to hang out with Nora in weeks. I'd like to."

"Then get dressed and go." Blake said with a smirk. "You know she hates waiting."


	7. Chapter 7

Bearing gifts of wine, and accompanying snacks to enhance the flavor, Pyrrha entered the household just as Yang was leaving. It was a good thing, too, because Nora was truly restless. The three card sharks gathered around, pouring the deep red zinfandel and plating the snacks. They spent a short while just chatting, catching up on conversation that never did interest the others.

Things like politics, and ethical advancement. The three of them were intellectuals that craved those deeper topics of stimuli far more often than their other teammates, and before cards, it was the best time.

Soon enough, the conversation changed to something more relaxed, as they began to settle in for a few hours of friendly play. Blake's ears flattened back as she shuffled the cards, the loud flapping of the cardboard was always just a little too loud for her liking. They popped right back up into the natural position as she began to deal. "So, anyway, after we put the fire out, they told us they'd send the results in the priority mail."

"Really…she knew they were going to take a hair sample." Weiss said with a roll of her eyes.

"And did you really think that would stop her from flaring up?" Blake laughed.

"Honestly? No, but one can only hope." Weiss took another long, slow sip of her wine, twirling the red liquid within her glass thoughtfully. "Priority mail, that's two days at most…"

Pyrrha hummed softly. "Sounds pretty standard."

"I'd like to think so, but Yang can be a complete basket case." Weiss admitted. "That's a long time for her to be edgy."

"Don't worry, I'm sure Nora's having a good long talk with her." In fact, if Pyrrha was sure of anything, it was Nora's ability to ramble about all the right things at the right time. "For all of her bubbliness, she's insightful, and I wouldn't put it passed her to charge headlong into the issue."

"A shared trait among them." Weiss observed. "I suppose it's what makes those two such good friends."

"We all practically pushed her out of the door today to get these tests done." Blake agreed, feeling a little guilty. "I don't know if any of this will provide catharsis for her."

"Even if it doesn't, it was the right thing to do." Weiss shrugged. "Once we know the truth for sure, we can start figuring out how best to handle the situation…and with any luck, if we can find birth records, we can find out her name. I'm sick of calling her 'the baby' all the time."

"Agreed." Blake nodded. "Your call Weiss."

"Twenty-two on the kitty." Weiss said simply. "Ruby seems pretty sure about the familial relation."

"Pass." Pyrrha sighed, her hand was absolute garbage. She wasn't about to get into a bidding war. "Do they all look alike? I haven't any idea what Yang's mother looks like."

"Twenty-three." Blake said. "And I'm not entirely sure. Either way, I hope the baby's hair doesn't get as easily knotted as Yang's. That's going to be a nightmare with her ears."

"I'm more worried they'll share the same explosive temper." Weiss returned. "Also, twenty four."

"Pass." Blake said, pushing the three card lying face down on the table into Weiss's general direction.

"Bupkis." Weiss said, arranging her cards as they began the hand. "I've said it before, I'll say it again. You are a terrible dealer."

"The cards just don't like you." Blake said with a laugh as a mew sounded from the bassinet at her feet. Blake looked down at the sleepy red eyes that were now looking up at her expectantly, just watching her. Another mew just like it followed, and Blake's ears flattened back. She gave a soft growl. It wasn't particularly friendly sounding, but neither was it anger.

If Pyrrha had to guess, she'd claim it was something of an admonishment. "Is everything alright?" Pyrrha asked, as she watched Blake continue to vocalize to the child.

Her expression slackened once more. "For now, but if we don't want screeching, someone better make a bottle." Blake said.

"She didn't like it the last time I made it, remember?" Weiss reminded her. "You had to do it. I'll feed her, if you make it though."

"Actually, may I?" Pyrrha asked.

Weiss and Blake readily agreed. "In fairness to Weiss, it wasn't the formula she didn't like. It was the nipple on the bottle. When I went into the kitchen, all I did was switch it out." Blake once again issued the same growl when the baby mewed again, but she got up to prepare the liquid meal.

"Why are you growling like that…if you don't mind my asking?" Pyrrha had been wondering about it though. By the way Weiss looked, she was curious too.

"She's addressing me directly, and I don't want her getting used to me answering in reply just yet." Blake explained offhandedly.

"Oh…" Pyrrha trailed off, picking up the youngster. Red eyes immediately affixed on Blake. So as a test, Pyrrha switched positions, causing the little Faunus to fuss around. It was amazing that such a small child had made such an attachment so soon. "Shh, you're alright."

"See?" Blake replied, ear twitching in slight aggravation. "If I encourage her mewing at me like that, she might start to think I'm her mother…and I don't want her to affix me into that role."

"Aren't you though, in a way?" Two glares of perplexity met her, and Pyrrha shrugged. "Well, I mean…bluntly speaking, we're implying a twenty-five year difference between the three of you and her. In Ruby's case, twenty-two years."

"Now I just feel old." Weiss said with a roll of her eyes.

"Far from it." Pyrrha told her. "However, my point still stands. It might be inevitable that she comes to see you all as her parents. The way you all interact with her will need to steer more in that direction as she gets older. I doubt you can avoid it."

"Now that is a horrifying thought." Weiss began, plucking a piece of cheese from the platter in front of them. "I don't even know if I'm entirely comfortable keeping a baby around the house."

Blake was on the offensive. "Don't say that like she's some sort of pet, Weiss."

"Don't twist my words. You know I don't mean it like that." Weiss gave Blake a withering look. "It's just that this is not the sort of community one chooses to raise a child. Furthermore, we have a reputation to maintain…and besides, you said it yourself. You have no intention of parenting her. I certainly don't either, and you can't expect me to."

"No one expects you to. With any luck, she'll attach to Yang and Ruby properly." Blake replied then. "Honestly, if we're going to go through with this, I'd rather only be treated as an aunt or something." She said slowly as she came around the counter, passed Pyrrha the bottle, and then sat back down. "That's not to say I won't look out for her, but I'm not her mother…and it's not my place to try to be."

* * *

At the nearby tavern, Yang and Nora were having a similar conversation about the newest resident of the RWBY household.

"Trust me, Yang, it's not that I don't like babies, because really, I do. I love them. They're so cute, and she especially looked so cuddly." Nora went on to say, mouth full of pizza as she gulped it down. "It's just that she's really small, and I'm not exactly dainty. I'm kind of afraid I'll hurt her. When they're that small, they're just so little, and helpless…and I feel like I do better with older ones…"

"I hear that." Yang said, twiddling the straw in her soda. She reached for another breadstick, dipping it in pizza sauce idly. "I'm used to handling little kids and all, but the last little baby I held? That was Ruby…tells you how out of practice I am."

"Nah, you're fine."

"Yeah, well I don't think I'm fine."

"You're not finally letting all of that 'brute' talk from Weiss finally get to you, are you?" Nora asked then, head cocking to the side. "She's kidding. You know she's kidding Yang, Weiss respects your skill as a huntress. That's why the two of you always team up for the really hard stuff."

"She's not wrong though." Yang said offhandedly. "I am a brute. I'm not careful, I don't always think things through. Honestly, I don't think I would have made a good huntress without my team, because Weiss, Ruby, and Blake all think before they act when it really counts…I just get angry…"

"And?"

"And I don't want to be a bad influence."

"Ah, I get it. You think that being that way is somehow a horrible thing…" Nora accused with a knowing grin, reaching across the table to flick Yang on the nose. "But it's not. You're smart, and you do think about things a lot. Probably more than the others, you just do it after the heat of the moment." Nora shrugged, grabbing another huge slice of pizza. "Nothing wrong with a little reflection."

"Nothing right with blowing up first and then asking questions later."

"Okay, you got me there...but at least you know that's not a good thing all the time. So you're not perfect. So what." The carrot-top shrugged, elbows resting casually on the table as she licked a bit of sauce from her thumb. "You talk to your dad yet?"

Yang shook her head. "He goes missing from time to time."

"Oh…why's that?"

"Signal's missions aren't like Beacon's. School kids that age never go on missions without supervision. One adult for every two kids. Not a surprise though, they keep the training wheels on. Kind of have to with all the Grimm in the forests. Only problem is, Dad's a mission's teacher, so good luck tracking him down."

"Ah." Nora nodded, never having met the man. "And so your uncle's out of the question too?"

"Ruby called him, but he refused to pick up. Something about blowing his cover…all he texted back was that he was doing something for Ozpin." Yang sighed. "I know I shouldn't be so worried. I'll figure it out somehow. I always do. I just wish this wouldn't fall on everyone else's shoulders so much. I don't want to bog them down."

"That's what friends are for." Nora told her. "If you can't bog down your friends every now and then, who can you trust? I know you don't like people worrying about you, but they do."


	8. Chapter 8

**AYangThang:** Time skip happens in the middle of this chapter, just an fyi. Hope you all enjoy. Also longer chapter than normal because I was reluctant to break it off...but don't expect one this long all the time. That would be insane for this, considering it's just a fun little side project.

* * *

"So, uh…" Yang scratched her head. "How are we gunna…"

"I'm not exactly sure, but whatever you do, it had better be done carefully." Blake said. "I don't think she knows to fold her ears down yet, so you'll have to do it for her. You don't want to get too much water in them."

"Fold them down? No way." Yang said looking like Blake had grown a second head. "I don't want to hurt her."

"Never mind the bath, let's just soak a towel and scrub her with that." Ruby said thoughtfully. "How dirty could she possibly be?"

Weiss cringed. "I don't know, Ruby, why don't you sit in your own excrement for more than five seconds, and figure that out."

"Point taken." Ruby shivered with disgust at the thought. "Oh, this is stupid. Come on guys, what could be so hard?"

"Okay then, what do you suggest?" Weiss snipped.

It was amazing to think that four huntresses, all of whom were able to survive out in the wilds for days, couldn't figure out how to bathe a baby…and they'd certainly put off the issue long enough, even by a human's sense of smell. None of them wanted to think what Blake thought of it.

"Well, I was assuming we would just, ya know…put her in there?" Ruby said looking down into the now partially filled bath tub.

"She's too little." Yang said with a shake of her head. "She can't support herself on her own, and we can't just lay her in there…least I don't think we can."

"Unless one of us gets in there with her and holds her." Blake replied. "Maybe turn on the shower, and wash her that way?"

"Um…I don't think so." Ruby said hesitantly. "Though, I guess if we did, at least she can't smack us in the face."

Weiss was dumbfounded. "What on remnant are you even talking about?"

"Funny story, actually." Yang said. "Uncle Qrow's apartment didn't have a bathtub, so when we went to stay with him, we had to use the shower. Anyway, Ruby was still a baby, couldn't stand on her own yet, so he carried her in the shower with him. She flailed around, smacked him in the face, and he almost dropped her." Yang explained. "Little kids are really, really, slippery…after that he got wise and put her in a bucket until she was old enough to stand still."

"Why am I not surprised?" Weiss replied. "Well, we are not putting her into our bucket. It's dingy, and we put chemicals in it. By the looks of it, someone is going to have to bite the bullet and get into the tub with her." The tone of her voice implying that she was _not_ going to be the one to get into the tub with the Faunus.

"Can't we just stick her in the sink?" Blake asked, leaning on the door. "That's kind of baby sized…one of us can hold her, another one can actually wash her down."

"The sink?!" Weiss balked. "That can't be sanitary."

"Actually..." Ruby murmured, looking over to the counter. "That might not be a bad idea."

"This is absolutely idiotic. You can stay here and complicate that matter all you like." Weiss said as she made her way out of the bathroom. "I am going to go to the store and buy one of those contraptions made for this sort of thing."

"Remember, whatever you buy, you have to lug home." Blake said.

"I'm not lugging anything." Weiss protested. "Come on Yang, you're coming too. We have a full list of other things we need to get, might as well get it all in one trip."

That one typical little moment was going to become something of a routine among them.

Trial and error. Problem solving as they went. At first, there were a great many problems to sift through. Personal issues for Yang. Aggravations for Weiss. Ponderings about moral stigma, for Blake. And Ruby watched it all, guilty that she was the one who caused it.

But what were they, If not a team? If not a strange sort of slapped together family?

A jumble of souls that fate had collided together for karma to laugh it. After all, a pair of half-sister was tragic enough in the Xiao Long household when they were children. A lonely cat Faunus raised among extremists, and an ex-heiress willfully disowned from her family name, were just added layers. Just more irony, another cog in the scheme.

Life, getting a good hard laugh at their expense.

And that was fine, there was nothing wrong with their lot in life. They were all happy, more or less. Yet, when four souls became five, and two sisters become three, it was a whole lot harder to laugh back in its face. It wasn't funny anymore…but it _was_ reality…and it _was_ the future.

And so, Bath time became a thing. Right along with a whole new whirlwind, and figuring stuff out as they went along…it wasn't always easy.

* * *

According to her birth certificate, Ace Branwen was hardly a month old when Ruby had found her. They'd looked into details about her family, but, her only surviving relatives on her father's side was a withering old cat Faunus who lived in Vacuo. They doubted he even knew that he had a grandchild. Even if he did, the man was pushing ninety. He was in no condition to raise a little girl.

As was expected, her only traceable relatives on her mother's side were Yang, and Qrow.

Yang hadn't even needed to look at the stupid paperwork, she made her choice several sleepless nights before that. As a team, however, the unanimous decision to raise Ace amongst themselves went without saying. There wasn't even a question in their minds, although, as they all soon came to find out, keeping a baby meant changes. Big changes.

Much larger and far reaching ones than they'd all initially thought.

The first large one of many, was all of the baby supplies to invade their small home. The second was the doctor visits, and the close third was the rather questionable sleeping arrangements. They had no room for a crib, and as Blake had explained early on, small Faunus were not keen to enjoy being by themselves. Hence, it became normal to pass the baby around at night, least they all endure petulant screeching.

The fourth realization became a series of minor crisis as Ace got older, able to crawl into all manner of trouble. It was then, they discovered that every loose chord, piece of cutlery, cleaning solution, and gear from their work, was a nightmare waiting to happen. In a paranoid effort to make everything safe, Yang had even tapped the corners of the tables with bubble wrap...baby proofing was a much more complicated endeavor than any of them had first assumed.

When even the tiniest wrapper was a choking hazard, Weiss was even more inclined to keep the house cleaner then usual.

The reason for this was simple, and proven true yet again as little feet went scampering through the house. Thumping across the wooden floor with recklessness as she tried to reach her favorite hiding place. A wet trail left behind as she retreated from the bathroom, one very agitated caretaker sighing as she squeezed water out of her shirt.

"Don't just stand there, grab her!"

The blonde didn't need to be told twice as she scooped up her baby sister, holding her high in the air. "Intercepted." She shouted in victory, only to have water flung all over the place as the small Faunus shook her head from side to side. Little ears flicked away the last of it, her wild mane of black tresses sticking in all directions. "…damn it…" She sighed, giving her diminutive little sister a harsh look "Ace, really?"

"She's not a ball, Yang." Weiss sighed, wrapping the small Faunus in a towel. "Did you hate baths this much when you were her age?"

"No, just the brush." Yang said, cringing at all of the knots that had crumpled themselves into unruly black hair. "Oh, man, this is bad…"

"That's why I was trying to do it while she was actually in the bath." Weiss replied, knowing a thing or two about particularly unkempt hair. Missions having trained her well in such aspects. "I assumed if I doused the knots in hair conditioner, I might stand a chance." She reached around to get a better look at the tangles.

Little ears flattened back at the sight of the brush. "Rrrr."

Yang sighed with a knowing frown. "Trust me squirt, we don't like this any more than you do."

Ace grabbed at Yang's fingers, examining them and twiddling them about playfully.

"She's going to rip us up if we try to unknot these." Weiss said worriedly, biting her lip.

Small Faunus had sharp claws, and Ace used them quite indiscriminately. Both while playing, and while upset. They were tiny, and sharp like a small kitten. None of them ever blamed her for it, but they still hurt. Part of the problem was that Ace lacked of control of her Faunus traits, something Blake promised she would learn as she got older. Until then, they had to deal with the small hands that could claw through human aura, leaving catlike scratches in her wake.

"Well, about the only one who doesn't come out of bath time unscathed is Blake." Yang winced. "…maybe Ruby's right…maybe we should cut it short?"

"She's not going to let us near her with a pair of scissors." Weiss said, resigning herself to the inevitable screeching. "You hold her still, and I will try to do this as quickly and painlessly as possible."

Another unhappy little growl morphed into a loud screech, and Yang resigned herself to the tiny pinpricks already dotting their way up her arms as Ace protested with all of her might.

* * *

It was on this typical Wednesday evening that Blake returned home more than a little tired, and covered in the rustic joys of the outdoors. She no sooner stood in front of the door, and laughed to herself. Yang was yelling about something, and entering in on the scene only proved her suspicions. "Under the couch again?"

"Weiss brushed her hair. Screamed like we were killing her, and then darted under the couch." Yang explained, another shirt mangled beyond repair, and the skin beneath sporting angry red marks. It was clear that Ace had given several good attempts at trying to climb out of Yang's strong grip. Reaching for her little sister, she hollered once more as two sharp eye-teeth stabbed into her hand. "And what's with the biting?! What the hell did I did to deserve that!"

"Like you wouldn't bite someone who came after you with a brush…" Blake said, trying to drown out Yang's tirade. She bent down to get a look at the still very naked little girl who had managed to thwart every attempt at being removed from her favorite spot. "Hello trouble..."

A petulant growl was the only greeting Ace gave.

"What's her problem? I didn't do anything." Yang said, flaring her aura around the two puncture wounds.

"No, not yet." Blake said offhandedly. "But I bet you were trying to put her in clothes."

"Actually, I gave up on that too…" Yang trailed sheepishly. "I was just trying to get her to eat."

"I'll get her." Blake too, was met with angry little mewls of displeasure, as the small child backed further into the corner and just out of reach. This undeterred the older Faunus who reached out and grabbed Ace, aura flaring around the small teeth that dug into her arm. She let it persist, ignoring the line of spittle as the little girl chewed and chewed. "Yang…" Blake said softly as she winced at a new realization. No wonder she was gnawing. "She's cutting a few more teeth I think."

"How does that not hurt?"

"Because her teeth can't cut through my aura yet. I'm a Faunus, same as her. It'll be years before she'll have a strong enough bite to cut through an aura like mine." Blake said as she started to rub at little ears, soothing away the soft growling that was lowly morphing into purrs as Blake wrapped her in a blanket, watching the little girl claw, bite, and scratch at her arm, a low wine working up from the back of her throat. "She is a predator Faunus, pretending to hunt is part of playing."

"Yeah, well I'm not a mouse." Yang sighed grumpily.

"Your hand might as well be. If you thought teasing me with a laser pointer back at Beacon was all fun and games, think again. " Blake told her. "I was practically an adult and I was drawn to it. What do you think she's going to do if she sees something enticing flailing around in her hiding place?"

"Okay, okay, so maybe I was being an idiot..."

"No, you were being you...and normally she loves that about you. She's just in a bad mood, is all." Blake said softly as she wrangled the little girl into a diaper and one of her shirts. Anything else was a lost cause in the comfort of their own home. Before she knew it, Ace was running off again. "Where are Weiss and Ruby?"

Yang offered only a passing glance as she sat down and put her feet up. "Weiss ditched. Said she needed some space."

"She's probably having tea with Ren and Pyrrha then."

"My thoughts." Yang said, blipping on the television and leaning back to get comfortable. "And Ruby…well, she came in here looking like death warmed over, barely crawled into the shower, and then tried to eat dinner only to pass out at the table. I hauled her into bed and that's the last I heard of her." She reached over to hold a lamp in place as her young half-sister proved her brazen disregard for fear as she yanked on the cord. "Ace…" Yang snapped sharply, red eyes flicking up to her before deciding pulling the lamp off the table would be a bad idea. "I swear, sometimes I think Grimm are less trouble."

"You only have yourself to Blame." Blake laughed as she walked into the kitchen. "I'll bet you that's your side of the family acting up."

"Ya think?" Yang called sarcastically, with the tiniest of smirks. The popping of a tin can couldn't have come at a better time as Ace rushed to the kitchen. She knew what that sound was. "On your sixth, Blake." She warned, which of course meant that Ace was now behind her, clearly looking for handouts in the form of whatever canned fish she thought Blake had just opened.

"She's not going to be happy, because this isn't dinner." Blake called back. "Or anything she can have."

"Oh?"

"It was a new can of sweetened condensed milk." Blake explained loud enough for Yang to hear from the other room. She could already feel Ace clawing at her pant leg already, tiny mews issuing from the young Faunus. The little girl was still too young for milk products though. "If Ruby has as bad a day as you implied, she would probably appreciate some homemade hot chocolate. I thought I would make her some."

Yang raised an eyebrow, standing up, and going into the kitchen. "You've been doing that kind of thing a lot, lately."

"Don't even think about it." Blake said, warming a mixture in a pan over low heat.

"No, I'm serious." Yang said, picking Ace up when the little girl raced for her. "You've been looking after Ruby a lot recently. I just wondered what was up with that." With her youngest sister safely on her hip, Yang meandered over to the fridge, grabbing a jar of ground up meat.

"She's been taking over a lot of my charity work, since I've got to stay near Vale for the time being." Her golden eyes flicked to the troublesome young Faunus who gave the humans of the house a run for their sanity. Yang and Weiss tried their best, but Ace was a very head strong little girl, and as a Faunus, her teeth and claws made it very difficult to handle her without restraints. Blake didn't have the same problems, being a Faunus herself, and so it was just easier to stay near the wayward youth. "Doing these little things for her is just my way of saying thank you."

"Uh-huh..." Yang muttered unconvinced. "You sure that's it?"

"Yes, I'm sure..."

"Well, okay. If you say so."

"I'm just trying to do the right thing." Blake turned to her blonde haired friend. "Ruby's been working so hard to keep our charity endeavors afloat...She doesn't have to try to, but she does. And with you and Weiss pulling all of those cargo missions lately..." Blake trailed off. "I agreed to stay behind because, it makes the most sense that I keep an eye on Ace until she's older and has better control over herself...but I have to admit, seeing Ruby come home so tired all the time makes me feel bad. A small thing like hot chocolate is the least I can do."


	9. Chapter 9

"I must say though, I never would have thought for an instant that you'd become so invested in her upbringing..."

It was just a simple off handed statement, if not also an observation. One spoken between sips of hot tea and a quiet night within the walls of the JNPR home. Nora was out in search of something interesting to pass time by, and Jaune was attempting to keep up with her. Ren retired early for the night, leaving Pyrrha and Weiss some time to converse amongst themselves.

Even though Pyrrha meant it as a compliment, Weiss found herself strangely affronted, even as she knew there was no reason to be.

"What else am I supposed to do? Leave her wellbeing to Yang?" Weiss replied darkly. "She knows nothing about setting rules and boundaries. It's hard enough getting her to upkeep the ones I set for the household, let alone protecting a small child from getting into trouble."

At this, Pyrrha laughed. Her friend was a great many things, but above all, her blood and breeding still had a bad habit of sticking out like a sore thumb. Weiss tried to suppress it, especially given her common lifestyle and meager earnings as a huntress. Old habits were hard to break though, and there were still hints of the old Weiss that went to war with the new one. "It's not a bad thing to care about Ace, is it?"

"No…" Weiss conceded. "It's not."

"So, why do you seem troubled?" Pyrrha asked gently.

"Strangely, I'm not." Weiss said with a tiny smile. "I'm tired...well, more like exhausted, truthfully. Ace doesn't listen very well, she's an active learner, not a passive one. I wish I could say I was surprised about that, but I'm not. I suppose I should just be thankful Ace can't set fire to the house when she starts screeching. If I seem bothered by something, it's only the realization that even with four of us, we're barely able to pull this entire fiasco off."

"You make do with what you have." Pyrrha noted topping off her friend's cup of tea. The action was slow and measured. "No one can fault you for that."

"True, but look at the four of us, and we paint a mottled picture that crumbles under scrutiny."

"...I don't follow..." Pyrrha bit her lip, weighing propriety with concern. "Are you all...facing some sort of difficulty?"

"I'm not saying we're all completely inept, far from it, but one might also say that when it comes to our individual capabilities, none of us are exactly parent material." Weiss began, painting a rather large target upon herself to start off. "I know nothing of a warm family home. I understand the principle, but the experience eludes me."

"And you find that to be a hindrance?"

"Yes, precisely." Weiss nodded. "On the other side of that very same coin, Yang fluctuates too much for any sort of consistency. She tries her best, we all do, but she struggles with temperance…and according to every book I've read on the topic, temperance and consistency are two things children need the most of...or so goes the theory."

"That does sound rather difficult." Pyrrha hummed, finding herself more than a little intrigued. Her dealings with small children wasn't nearly as vast as Jaune's own, and her view on the topic was stunted as a result.

"Well, it isn't easy." Weiss trailed off, shaking her head gently to rid herself of the mental fog her worries often put upon her. "Blake's the most clinical, explaining away strange mannerisms as Faunus habit. Most of the time, she says Ace will grow out of it. That's fine, they probably are harmless little habits. The problem is, trying to contend with Ace is near impossible right now. She's too animal-like in nature for a human to grapple with."

"Now that you mention it, she did seem much more like an apex predator than a child last I visited. I just thought that might have something to do with the way Blake was playing with her." Pyrrha had chuckled at the time, thinking it merely play, and little more. She had never been bitten by the small teeth, and for all of Ace's animal-like habits, she was also a very unsure of what to think of others. Very quick to hide behind her caregivers the moment something strange and new frightened her. "Though, I did notice that you didn't mention Ruby in that analysis of yours."

Weiss set down her mug. "Well, that's because Ruby's not afraid to retaliate against those little claws and teeth. Where Yang's afraid to hurt Ace, and I refuse physical violence on all measures if it can be avoided, Ruby's not so reserved about it. She just flicks Ace on the nose and goes on with her day, as if she didn't just send a small child away screeching."

"…that's..." It forced Pyrrha to take pause. "That's shocking, truly."

"For Ruby, or for Ace?" Weiss returned, seeing those stunningly green eyes try to come to grips with the little truths that had presented themselves in spades at the RWBY household.

"Well, that is the question, now isn't it?" Pyrrha surmised, bashfully admitting her own defeat on the subject. "I merely assumed Ruby was more nurturing. She's light hearted enough. It surprises me she'd be heavy handed about anything that doesn't directly involve Grimm."

"Ruby can be very nurturing too, don't get me wrong. She's just tougher on Ace over all, I think." Weiss agreed. "I think she's doing what she assumes her father and uncle might do. Neither one of them are what one might call subtle. Doting and loving in their own way, certainly, but that doesn't exactly equate to normal."

"No." Pyrrha agreed. "Perhaps it doesn't...but does that seem to stop Ace from biting?"

Weiss only sighed. "Not yet, but Blake is equally heavy handed. Ace doesn't seem to be intimidated by their rough handling, so maybe there's something to all of this...but if there is, I certainly don't understand it."

* * *

It was a typical evening in the team RWBY household.

Yang snuck off to her room for some alone time, a sock resting on the door handle indicating that she was relaxing. Should anyone go barging in, they might see something they'd rather not witness. Sock rules were an unspoken, but well-loved mandate between both Blake and Yang. A tradition that had carried over from Beacon. If the sock was on the door, the rest of the team entered at their own risk.

Yang was not shy about her thoughts on self-love, and Blake had more books of an erotic nature than one might deem necessary. The sock on the door handle was such a common sight, in fact, that when Ruby had finally woken up she ignored the fact that her sister was most likely masturbating to some new porn video across the hall.

Instead, she groggily made her way to the living room, sipping hot chocolate, and yawning into her hand. Thankfully, with Weiss as a roommate, the sock rule was the least of her worries. Ruby was sure Weiss wasn't in the least bit innocent, but she was much more discrete about her habits than the others in the house. It was with this passing thought in mind, that the token wallflower of team RWBY curled up in the nearest armchair, watching the goings on.

Blake was laying across the floor as some children's movie flickered on the television. She wasn't paying attention to it, but it was better than leaving the news on. Her golden eyed gaze was on her book. She had propped it up against a few pillows so that both of her hands were free. With one ear flicking, she listened for the sounds of the tiny little hunter who was far too excited about her next pounce to keep entirely silent.

Ace lunged, and Blake rolled to the side, hearing the thump of hands and feet landing on the wood.

Instead of running off to hide again, however, Ace hopped on top of her keeper in an impromptu attack. Blake batted the little girl off and back onto the floor, one palm lying flat on her belly to hold her in place. Content that Ace would be trying to worm her way out for a while, she went back to reading.

"Still a little ball of hyper activity, huh?"

"One might say that." Blake sighed as Ace once again got away, hiding behind the table as if she couldn't be seen. "Did you have a good rest?"

"About as good as I could hope for." Ruby admitted, her mind on her scythe. "I have repairs to do if I'm going to take that mission tomorrow."

"Stay home and rest."

"Na, I'm not going to force another hunter to take that supply route. Clearing the boarders of forever fall sucks."

"It's also grunt work. Ozpin would send students if he needed." Blake said then, looking at her exhausted friend. She only narrowly dodged the pounce this time, but didn't miss the way Ace climbed into her back and started gnawing on her ears. It was only playing, but it did hurt, and Blake shook her head in protest harder than she'd meant to, sending Ace toppling over. She sent a growl over her shoulder in warning before looking to Ruby again. "You need to start taking more time for yourself."

"I don't mind doing it, I just need to get some prep work done first." Ruby said, bending over to scoop Ace up from the floor before the diminutive little Faunus could get into any more trouble. Attention diverted, Ace reached for Ruby's mug. The effort failing as Ruby ignored the request and kept the hot liquid away from little hands. "It should take an hour or two tops...then I can go back to sleep and get an early day."

"Have Yang do it." Blake said. "Or better yet, Weiss. She can clear out an area with just a few glyphs."

"You know I hate pawning off easy jobs on others."

"It's not pawning when you're this exhausted." Blake said. "Ruby you're practically dead on your feet, and we've all started to notice. If you don't relax, you'll overdo it."

"Mm." Ruby agreed halfheartedly, watching as Ace played with the log black fabric of her shirt sleeve, putting little rips and tears in the fabric where there previously were none.


	10. Chapter 10

Whiskey was a strange thing. It was his vice that he could not be rid of. Yet, it was his answer to a great many problems, and his only way to silence the voices in his head. He took another sip, slouched over and slamming his glass onto the table. "You just going to sit there for the next eighteen years?"

"Not my kid." Another man, equally drunk and less put together said with a sigh.

"No shit, but your girls have taken a liking to the little rugrat. Might want to see what all the fuss is about."

"She's your niece, Qrow. You go see her. You're actually blood…you owe it to me, to this family, to step up here."

Qrow did the only thing he could do at that, he reached for the bottle and poured himself another drink. Not the most responsible decision he ever made, but by far not the worst. "Tai, I'm not going to take responsibility for this one. It wasn't my fault. Besides, I know only just as much as you do, nothing more. I'm not dancing this cha-cha again. It was bad enough the first go around with Yang and Ruby."

"No, it wasn't your fault, but it _was_ your sister's promiscuity." Tai told him. "You should take responsibility here."

"Okay, okay, shit, don't you think that's just a little too far?" Qrow asked darkly. "Raven wasn't the most maternal human being on the face of this planet, but she didn't just spread her legs to just anyone, and you know that." Seeing his friend at a complete loss bothered him. "Tai…it wasn't anything you did. Raven was a loner. Always was, always would be."

"Then why find another man to screw? Why not just come home!?" Tai reached for the bottle himself too. What else was he supposed to do? He shook his head. It was all pointless now. "She wanted a family? Its right here. Right where it's always been. Why do you think I never moved?" He downed his glass. "I waited. Yang waited…and for what? To be forgotten about and disregarded entirely?" He shook his head. "It isn't my kid…it could have been, but it wasn't...excuse me if I don't know how to deal with that."

"You're right. The baby isn't yours. Raven moved on, maybe she did forget. Maybe she didn't give a rats ass about you or Yang…or maybe she was just too ashamed to come back home. She's dead, Tai, we're never going to know." He shrugged at his own harsh words. "Fact is, Raven did pop out another kid. And like it or not, it is Yang's baby sister…and for what it's worth, that bond means something to her."

"I know that."

"Then why the fuck are you still sitting here?"

Taiyang sighed, looking deeply at the amber liquid. Instead of answering, he emptied he glass one final time and closed his eyes. "Back at you, Qrow. Why are you?"

* * *

Late at night, the children's programming line-up ended in favor of infomercials. The long winded, repetitive programming ran until sunrise. It was what Yang entered in on, trying to wake up early. The clock showed that it was just barely five in the morning, and half of the household had clearly fallen asleep on the couch last night. Ace was laying across Ruby, using the woman as a human mattress. Little clawed fingers digging into the shirt just as always.

Yang was sure that Blake hadn't intended to fall asleep curled into Ruby, or that the lone human on the sofa was aware of where her hand wandered in her sleep. Still the shared purring of the two sleeping Faunus meant that something went right…even if that something was merely that none of them were currently lucid enough to know what was happening amongst them. Ignoring the plethora of smart-ass remarks she could have made about it, she went into the kitchen. Weiss was already hunched over the table, sipping on some well-deserved coffee.

"What the hell happened to you?" Yang asked grumpily, noticing her friend's rather unkempt appearance. Her long hair in a disarray of tangles.

"Mission day." Weiss said before drowning herself in another deep, and rather undignified gulp of the caffeinated substance. "Blake convinced Ruby to stay home, so naturally I got roped into clearing out the boarders around the city."

"Grunt work?" Yang asked, having poured her own steaming mug full.

Weiss wordlessly pushed the mission briefing across the table. It was more or less busy work for a huntress as skilled as herself, but, according to the speculations, the hordes weren't manageable by a team of students. "It's obvious why Ruby accepted it."

"Team of fourth years got their asses handed to them, huh?" Yang shook her head. "Don't make student like they used to."

"I consider that a good thing. It means that we live in relatively peaceful times."

"Yeah…you keep thinking that." Yang said, closing the folder and yawning. "So you must have gotten in late."

Weiss nodded, the implication clear. "Pyrrha and I were just discussing a long term mission assignment. It's time for the yearly recruitment along the walls. Several older hunters are slated for retirement and positions are opening. I hear that that team CFVY have all accepted the assignment."

"The wall assignments are for lazy hunters who don't give a rat's ass about the outlying forests and supply routes." Yang shot back, but Weiss had already thought long and hard about it.

"They're also an option for hunters with families." Weiss said pointedly, seeing vivid lilac eyes glare at her.

"Okay..." Yang said, putting down her mug. "I'm listening."

"The walls around Vale are the defense we count on the most. It's a mental comfort to the people, seeing the hunters stationed on the walls, gates, and outposts. It pays well too. Salary, not commission." Weiss explained looking down into her own coffee in thought. "Hunters with families like working the walls because it's so close by."

"Lots of bonuses, by the sounds of it." Yang said slowly. "Too good to be true, calling it right now."

Weiss lifted her eyes to Yang. "It's like an Atlas military base in some ways. We'd stay on site while on active duty…but our close proximity to Vale means we'd be able to check in on days off…anyway, Pyrrha was considering taking a post. They work in teams of two though, like Beacon all over again. Pyrrha would rather not be assigned a partner she doesn't know, if she can avoid it."

"Jaune's not going?"

"He is, but for room assignments, they bunk in groups of eight."

"Full alliances?" Yang scratched her head. "Why that many?"

"Each segment holds a full squadron of sixteen. I can only assume it's to save space." Weiss shrugged then. "Coco propositioned JNPR for the extra four slots, but Ren and Nora declined. They want to be out in service to the people. Given our finical situation, it would make sense for two of us to team up and bring in some real income around here." Weiss had already decided she was going to join...now, she just had to convince Yang. "Starting salary is twenty grand a year…just a little bit over Vale's minimum wage."

"Forty total, in household funds if two of us go…" Yang murmured, starting to see the upside in such a plan.

"We make about thirty among all four of us on a good year. I don't belittle all of the charity work that Ruby and Blake do…but breaking even finically isn't going to keep the lights on around here." Weiss said softly. "Working within the walls doesn't conflict with our interests remotely. Money is money…and it is, as you say, a relatively safe position for a hunter. We'd be around more consistently too, if we didn't have to take the higher paying field missions."

"One of the safest." Yang sighed. It was the same thing as an easy ride, or cushy desk job. Only a handful of hunters stationed along the walls died every year due to a Grimm infestation. The same could not be said for the hunters sent out into the field. Their tolls were much, much higher. So high in fact, that Yang didn't even dare to look at the numbers. "Alright…I'll think about it…"

* * *

 **AYangThang:** Finally back from my week away from the internet. It feels good to actually have a little bit of personal time to do what I want again. Anyway, this is getting a double post tonight, so be on the lookout for chapter 11 within the next hour or so...those of you Blake/Weiss following "I Want a Cub" updates will resume for that on Sunday and will follow their normal pattern.


	11. Chapter 11

Yang agreed to take the mission assignment along the wall of Vale.

Within a week of meeting Ozpin and signing the paperwork, Yang and Weiss were both sent an empty duffle bag to carry any personal items. Due to the nature of the small living space, anything that couldn't fit in the duffle or the assigned weapons locker would have to stay home. They were each also issued a backpack of survival gear. A box containing five uniforms, five pairs of pajamas, a pair of steel toed shoes each rounded off the delivery.

They had requested and had been granted the open slots on Vale's westward wall. It was the one nearest to their home.

Blake, however, was not pleased with the decision. "I still don't agree with this."

"We're only going to be two hours away." Yang said, already resigning herself to her fate. "We couldn't get a closer assignment if we tried…well, unless we asked for the Beacon tower position. No one wants to be stationed there, it's all computer stations and babysitting academy kids. I'd lose my mind, and Weiss would blow her top the second she was told to shadow a bunch of first years. Besides, that's really no different from field work. When the students go on assignments, I'd have to track them down."

"I don't doubt we need the cash, and I agree, the assignment you got was a lucky one….but what are we going to do about Ace?" Blake asked, that little detail one of the ones to bother her the most. "You don't actually think leaving Ruby and I in charge is a good idea, do you?"

"It's not a bad one…"

"Yang…stop that."

"What? I'm just saying the truth." As she continued to cram her admittedly small duffel full, she realized that Weiss would be in for a rough time of things. If she thought Beacon's storage was hell in a handbag, this was going to be a whole new level of torture. "It's not like I'm leaving you guys for good. Wall rotation isn't all that bad."

"It isn't all that good, either, Yang."

"Weiss and I will work twelve to sixteen hour days, seven days in a row. Then they give us seven days off…rinse, repeat. I mean, yeah, I'm sure the seven days working sucks. Crammed living space, long hours, the food is probably crappy, but then I have a whole week after that to be home with Ace…"

"You should be staying here. Ruby or I should be going with Weiss. Ace needs you."

"Blake, remember what we talked about…the whole bad influence thing?"

"I told you, to stop thinking that way about yourself."

She had sais something about that, but Yang still had doubts. She still wondered, and feared, and cursed all of the things she couldn't do right the first time. This was one thing she knew, she could do. She needed the stability too, even if that was one of the hardest parts to admit.

"Look, I'm never going to be good at this whole keeping a baby out of trouble thing…and when Ace gets older, I don't want her to see me as the bored alcoholic who goes off on missions for months at a time and never sees her." Yang began, not that she resented her uncle. Not in the slightest. It just wasn't the life she wanted for herself.

"But you aren't that sort of person." Blake retorted. "You've been careful...perhaps too careful in retrospect, not to do anything that could possibly make Ace think poorly of you..."

"And it still isn't good enough, maybe it is for Ace. But it's not for me." Yang admitted. "If I can't give Ace a normal upbringing, then least I can do is try for stable. I'm tired of living paycheck-to-paycheck, praying for work that might not come when we need it."

"Then I'll go so that you can stay here." Blake repeated, feeling as though it was the better option.

"And give up the soup kitchens, and homeless shelters you put all the hours you can at?" Yang asked. "What about the spousal abuse center you visit every Saturday to help? Or the youth center for troubled Faunus? You're just going to give up all of that?" She watched as her friend's golden eyes closed, an annoyed sigh lingering in the air. A slow exhale. "You became a huntress to make a difference. That's what you wanted, that's what you're doing. Don't throw that all away for my sake."

"What if I'm not thinking about doing it for you?"

"…Blake…I never wanted this. I wanted to just be a huntress…maybe Raven and I aren't that different in that way. Being a sister to Ruby was awesome…but I don't know how to raise a kid. I never planned to...I don't know...maybe this is some sort of retribution for how much I resented Raven."

"What do you mean, Yang?" Blake murmured as she sat down on the edge of her bed.

"I get it now." Yang admitted softly, pacing back and forth a few times. "Feeling trapped. Like everything I do is just one big fuck-up after another…maybe Raven just wasn't ready for me…just like deep down, I know, I'm not ready to look after Ace."

"But you are doing everything you can, Yang. That's a whole lot more than you could ever say about Raven. Even this new mission assignment. You're doing it for Ace, because we need the money if we ever hope to look after her…but I'm telling you that you don't have to do this."

"Yes I do…" Yang said quietly. Pulling out her scroll and flipping to a picture she took unbeknownst to the trio who'd fallen asleep. She tossed her scroll to Blake, who caught it haphazardly. The image was starting to become more common place, though Yang wondered if Blake or Ruby noticed it. The nearness of the two of them sitting cross-legged on the floor. A bowl of pretzels between them, and Ace hunkered down in Ruby's lap. "Go ahead, lie to me if you want. Tell me you don't want moments like that…"

Blake said nothing, thumbing through the incriminating evidence that Blake herself had never really taken notice of. There were so many pictures, some while the three were awake, some while they were asleep. The timestamps showed weeks of little moments. One or two photos she would have been able to brush off. Instead there were at least twenty, maybe more, if she took the time to look even further back.

Hands on her hips, Yang asked again. "Well?"

"I…" Blake licked her lips. "It's...you took that many?"

"See, you can't deny it, can you?" Yang said, only a hint of smugness in her tone. "You like your movie nights, and your morning fairytales…and it doesn't matter if you admit it or not. You and Ruby are both playing house. Living vicariously because neither one of you are aware enough in what the hell you're doing to make a move…it's like you're already a sexless couple satisfied with settling for a lukewarm romance that doesn't go anywhere."

"That's hardly the case…"

"Then tell me otherwise." Yang pushed. "Fact is, I don't think you can." She gestured back to the scroll still in Blake's hand.

The pictures still on the screen. None of them were huge, or particularly scandalous…but that was the worst thing about them. They didn't need to be. The natural feeling of each one proved that none of them were scripted…and Blake only remembered a small handful. The rest took place while she wasn't paying attention, far too enamored with whatever else was happening around her.

"If something bad happened to us, Ace wouldn't have anyone." Yang explained, knowing the same unfortunate rule applied to Blake and Weiss. Outside of their friends, they had no real family anymore. "We need to stick together, and I've got to do what's best for everyone. I feel like this is the right thing, so I'm going, and you're staying…and that's just the way it's got to be."

* * *

For Ruby, the concept was no different than when their father spent all of his time at the academy. For a long time, he only came home on weekends, or very late at night when they should have been asleep. That was one of the reasons Ruby recalled staying with their uncle in Vale when she was small. It was closer to the school, and thus, closer to her father.

It was easier for him to make the commute nightly to the apartment, than it was to cross a lake to get to Patch.

Yang was doing what she felt she had to do, and that was the extent of the entire situation. If Ruby understood anything about her sister, it was that Yang jumped headlong into solutions as they came. This one was an answer to a huge problem, and Yang was grasping for it like a starving man did a dinner plate.

That didn't stop the house from feeling empty, though.

They had only been gone a day, but Ruby noticed their absence in the little details. A few of the books Weiss kept above the fireplace were gone now. Yang had taken a few of the picture frames off the mantle. They both had raided the kitchen, taking their favorite snacks. The fact that there was no longer any beer in the fridge, or wine for that matter, made it seem empty. All of it had been disposed of, or drunken before they left.

It was the silence she noticed next.

The lack of her sister bellowing across the house in her usual fashion, playing music, or watching something obscene on television. Yang's racket was easy to miss. Weiss had always been more reserved, but even she had her own distinct noise, albeit more subdued. Ace noticed the changes as well, if her occasional glances at the door were any indication.

Ruby watched as the little girl ran over to the square ring of papers that hung up on the wall. Today was a Saturday…not that Ace knew that, but the sheet of paper was colored green. Green paper meant going to the park. Ace noticed this and ran back to the window to wait some more.

It was the first time in her life, that Ruby cursed the colored pages of the tear away calendar. Yang and Nora always took her to the park on weekends…and there was no Yang, and thus, no park…and Ruby sighed, leaning heavily on the wall. She had been hoping, praying, that Ace wouldn't notice. Yang and Weiss were probably still settling in for orientation. They started officially working Monday.

"Ace." Ruby called, pulling the little girl's attention. "No park. Yang's working."

Little ears flattened back, and a whine protruded from her throat as she looked back towards the window. The word 'no' always seemed to be a bad thing.

"Ace, come here." Ruby said, as she pulled the stairs down to the attic. "I want to show you something."

She cocked her head to the side, her left ear flicking, and a mew forming the question she was still too little to ask with words.

"Come here if you want to see it." Ruby said, bending over and patting her legs. She watched as Ace looked back to the window. Torn between wanting to see the surprise, and waiting for Yang. The decision seemed to be a hard one for the small child. "Ace…"

Curiosity won out, and she made her way over to Ruby, who picked her up, and carried her up the steep ladder in to the very top of the house. The floors were rickety. The room was dusty. The ceiling was so low even Weiss was at risk of bumping her head on it in a few places. Ruby put a palm over the little girl's head to softly push against the kitten-like ears, keeping the dust and cobwebs out.

"See that big wall over there in the distance?" Ruby, said, pointing over to it. From this far away, it looked small, but Ruby knew better. "That's where she is, working really hard so that you can be safe and warm." Ace made another discontented and somewhat confused sound. Ruby only shook her head. "No Yang. If you want to go to the park, we have to wait for Blake."


	12. Chapter 12

Yang flopped down on her bed. The rectangular large room housed eight hunters. The beds were carved into the walls. Four on one side, four on the other, a slender twin mattress and pillow were the only issued comforts. Beside them, a square nook cut out was where they placed their personal duffel bag. Their only allotted common area rested in the middle of the room. A few sofa's sat back to back, a television was mounted in the far corner, and a table stood in the center. Four chairs gathered around it. There was a singular desk against each wall, but for all of that, the space seemed cold.

"Nothing like Beacon, I'll say that much." Yang observed. She would have to be careful when sitting up so as not to smash her head on the brick above. All of her roommates faced the same problem, though, so she couldn't complain. She had claimed the top bunk to save Weiss the hassle, but upon inspection, Yang realized that almost all of the problems that came from the top bunk, also occurred down below.

The only added issue was getting up and down with the provided ladder. Not an easy task for a person as large as herself. Another drastic change, was that they'd be rooming with several men. Weiss claimed she didn't care, but Yang thought it prudent to ask again. "So, you're sure about this whole three dudes in the room, thing?"

"Fox is blind, Jaune is completely harmless, and as for Yatsuhashi?" Weiss shook her head. "He has more decorum than to be peeping at anything he shouldn't be. As I told you before, I don't mind sharing a room with men who conduct themselves properly."

"Uh-uh, and as for the suction cups you're sticking on our area?" Yang asked, but Weiss ignored her.

Instead, she finished her project, attaching two bars that stuck outward to the cups. She then tied clothesline around that, draping a dark blue sheet over her finished work. "There, see?" Weiss replied simply. "A privacy screen. Just pull this suction cup here, and put it on the side with the other one to open the area back up when it isn't in use."

"I knew ordering you that subscription to Hunter's Weekly was a bad idea." Yang said with a smirk. "No telling what cracked out ideas you got from those things."

"Any worse than Ruby's schemes?" Weiss retorted as she sat down in the open chair nearest her bed.

"Naw." Yang said as she scanned the room. "I guess not." It was still pretty lifeless in her opinion. Then again, it wasn't as if they could add too many personal touches, every other week two other teams would end up using the space. They had to keep it tidy. "It's weird, I thought that things around here would be more organized. Instead, all we get are messages on our scrolls."

"Is that some sort of a problem?" Weiss asked.

Yang just shrugged thoughtfully. "The way you described it, I thought it would be more…well, strict."

"We slay Grimm for a living." Weiss pointed out with a soft laugh. "So long as we keep the outside area clear from Grimm, our position here is more just for show than anything else. We keep the bandits away, and the crime down. Most of our work comes in the form of community services, but I think that's just to boost the morale of the people."

"Probably." Yang said, though the idea of rushing in on that kind of emergency was an unpleasant thing to ponder to say the least. "We do have police radios though, and given our field training we know basic medicine. Wouldn't be surprised if we end up as backup." She shoved it out of her mind. "I'd rather sling slop in the kitchen, or babysit a few rookies...but can't have it all, right?"

"I suppose not." Weiss agreed. "Well now that I'm settled in, I'm going to explore the facilities. Do you want to come with me?"

"Na." Yang said, grabbing her scroll. "Think I'm going to call Ruby, and check in."

Weiss paused, studying the blonde before nodding. "Suit yourself…but come down to the cafeteria later. We really should eat with our new team."

"It's that cut and dry for you, huh?"

"Don't be a blockhead. That isn't what I meant and you know it...if you don't come down for dinner, I'll drag you down."

* * *

Was there a way to somehow push a relationship forward when it very clearly had been headed in the same direction for years? Blake wasn't sure. She couldn't exactly pinpoint when she began to develop feelings for Ruby, or even if she had developed them at all. It wasn't that simple. It wasn't about love, or emotion. It wasn't the safety of routine, or the monotony of days gone by. It was that, for as long as Blake could recall, she and Ruby had a friendship. Nothing more, nothing less, that a very dear friendship.

The question was, was saying anything worth jeopardizing all of that? Was taking a risk this time worth all of the hurt it might cause, if silence was relatively painless by comparison? There wasn't an easy answer. Blake decided over a cup of coffee late that night, that none of this was ever going to be. What made things worse, was that it didn't need to be complicated either.

As Yang had accused, they were fine, living with things the way they were.

Maybe it didn't need to change. Maybe it would all be better, continuing on without saying a word. It was the way things normally went after all. Blake quietly nodding her head and getting swept up in whatever oddity came her way next…

But…

Yang was right too…some part of this…some part of the quiet night in front of her was something she wanted. As Blake observed the nocturnal child in front of her watch the newest movie that Ruby had found, she couldn't deny it. These were the sorts of moments that her life had become. In spite of a great many things she refused to give a voice to when Yang inquired about it, she could feel the palatable awkwardness now.

The perfection of what _was_ , shattering like glass around what _could be_.

Yang had broken her happy little illusion. Getting lost in those thoughts were a stifling thing too, not to mention distracting, because the next time she looked over, Ace had her eyes closed.

"She's asleep." Blake murmured.

"Yeah, drifted off a little while ago."

"Ruby?"

"Hmm?"

"Did you plan on keeping her with you tonight, or should I put her in my room?"

"I was going to lay her down in Yang's bed with me. That way if she wakes up looking for someone else, you're not all the way across the hall."

"That'll work."

It was silent again between the two of them, but not for long. "Blake?"

"What?"

"After this, want to watch the sequel?"

"Yeah…sure thing."

She would be a liar if she said that this lukewarm affection was truly what she wanted. The problem was, she couldn't afford to be greedy now. It was asking too much to expect to stop and turn her whole life's perspective on a dime. It was too short notice, and it hurt. It hurt in ways Blake had no way to describe. Fears of lost time and opportunity the least of her problems. Though, understanding that didn't ease the sting any less. If such realizations were so painful to her, she feared what Ruby might feel.

As with everything in her life, it came down to circumstance and priority. They had Ace to look after, that came first. Everything else had to come second, and that included misguided romantic feelings for one of her best friends.

And that wasn't fair either…not to anyone.

"Ru…" The woman's name practically lodged itself in her throat. "Ruby?"

"Yeah?"

It didn't need to be anything more than the truth. That's all it had to be. "I think, I may be in love with you."

Ruby's gaze shifted from the television to the golden eyed Faunus by her side. "Ditto…"


	13. Chapter 13

Things were different, yet the same.

Sparks didn't fly, she wasn't swept off of her feet, the sun came up and they both went about their day as adulthood demanded. There were more questions than answers, and responsibilities always had to come first. It wasn't the right time to talk at length at night, because they didn't want to risk waking Ace up by accident. The morning was filled with morning showers, breakfast, chores, and taking care of Ace.

By afternoon, Ace had finally tuckered herself out for a nap, and they finally had a moment to themselves. Even then, they had things to do. Blake had bills to pay, and Ruby needed to make a run to the corner store. In the end of it all, there wasn't anything different about their lifestyle, not really. It just felt that way now. Blake could acknowledge the lingering touches, the glances to the side, the way Ruby hummed nonsense while she repaired her scythe for the countless time.

It wasn't a fairytale like the ones they seemed to drench themselves in both within the pages of books, and across the screen. They weren't damsels in distress, and there was absolutely no reason for either one of them to entirely give up their independency. It made perfect sense to just accept things as they came. To take things slow. That's why it was so surprising that even while covered in dust, Ruby was the first one to start voicing the lingering and unspoken questions.

"Um, so why now?" It was the first thing to come flying out of her mouth, gentle, but confused. "We've gone this long without saying anything, right? So why so suddenly last night?"

"Well, why not?" Blake said, but in truth, it was her own slip of the tongue that caused it.

"Because I know you better than that." Ruby said, though her voice wavered. "And you know me. I've never done anything…not like this."

Blake knew that was most definitely true. Ruby was fifteen when they met. She never had a boyfriend or a girlfriend in the entire time Blake had known her. Prior conversation and gossip explained that while the elder sibling dated a little bit before Beacon, Ruby hadn't been interested in that. "Does it scare you?"

Ruby just shrugged.

"You don't have to say if you don't want to." Blake backpedaled. "I've always wondered…never asked, because I never really wanted the answer before now but-"

"You don't scare me." Ruby said quietly. "No matter what, I don't think you could ever scare me."

"But, what about the situation?"

"I'm not really sure." The meticulous aggravation of loading dust into bullets was a needed distraction from her own mind. "But love can hurt people. It has the ability to make good people do bad things, and that does scare me." She hated all of the measuring, all the math, but that kind of calculation grounded her. "I've seen a lot of bad come out of something that's supposed to be so good…"

"Yeah, you're right. We have seen a lot of negativity. My past came with plenty of it." Blake murmured, not even trying to deny it. "You've seen a lot of good too, though."

"Totally." Ruby nodded. "It doesn't make me less scared though."

"I don't want you to be."

"I don't either, but I am." Silver eyes looked up from her work, hesitancy cracking through the otherwise soft blink that steadied her. "I don't want to screw up."

"We're both going to do something wrong by accident eventually. We may not want to, but it is going to happen." Blake broke the gaze first. If experience in life and romance combined told her anything, it was that failing sometimes was a promised guarantee. "We just have to be ready to deal with it the best we can when it does."

"Are you really okay with that?" Ruby asked shyly.

It was Blake's turn to waver. Her past track record in relationships was one big mess after another. It was absolutely nothing to be proud of, and even the most stable ones that didn't include extremist organizations had ended in disappointment. Her breakup with Sun Wukong was the easiest. Mutual and quiet. She'd had a short fling with Yang too, but it was experimental and they both knew it wasn't meant to last. Even those breakups were damaging to her in their own personal ways.

So was she okay with knowing she could possibly hurt Ruby? No, not in the slightest, but she couldn't let the past hold her back. "Not…exactly, but, let's just say, I'm prepared to make mistakes."

Ruby went back to loading bullets with dust. "At least you have experience. I don't have anything like that, I've never even kissed anyone before. I never really wanted to…" Ruby trailed off.

"That's true too, I suppose…but that doesn't put me off." Blake looked around, the kitchen was hardly the place. "Although, the only way to get experience is to actually do it." It wasn't in the least bit romantic. Especially now, with the table filled with an assortment of dusts and empty rounds. Then again, perfection was always going to be overrated. "Do you want to?"

Ruby very nearly dropped the vial of dust she was holding. "Um." Her cheeks reddened at the thought. It wasn't the offer she was expecting, and truth be told, she knew it was quite visible that her brain had entirely derailed for a second there. "Like right now, while I'm covered in a flammable stuff? Or, like later, when I'm not, and won't blow up the house?"

Blake let out a soft laugh at that, shaking her head. Ruby's expression alone was entirely worth the question. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'd rather not call Weiss and tell her we've ignited the kitchen."

* * *

The wall had to be guarded around the clock, perimeter checks took place every eight hours, but guard towers were also manned all day, every day. Scheduled work hours were long, thankfully mundane affairs. There was rarely anything but a lone Grimm or two that wandered just a little too close to the computerized sniper turrets. The high caliber dust rounds normally dispatched the Grimm, or at the very least chased it away from the boarder.

There were also trapped Grimm raised in captivity. These were used to train the younger, lesser experienced students at Signal academy. These Grimm were less wild, slightly tamer around people. They would never be safe to be around, no one could entirely domesticate a Grimm, but it was the next best thing. Weiss decided quickly she hated working with the captured Grimm, and much preferred standing ground along the wall.

Pyrrha also chose this task over the dreary insides, and so they often spent their shift together. "It's always so beautiful this time of day, just before the sun rises."

"Only if you happen to be a morning person." Weiss replied, leaning on the stone slab that made for a defensive railing. "Or someone who just stayed up all night."

"Like ourselves?" Pyrrha jested.

"One could say that."

"Two more hours until we're relieved of our post." Weiss fought back a yawn.

"The final stretch is always the worst." Pyrrha agreed as she squinted. "What's that?"

"I don't know." Weiss said, flipping down her night vision goggles only to see Velvet and Fox making their rounds down on the ground. As a Faunus, Velvet was most suited to nighttime patrols, and since Fox was blind, the time of day he worked didn't rightly matter. "Velvet and Fox coming back, by the looks of it."

"I really wish Coco would bring Jaune back soon. I don't like the idea that she's using him as bait to bring back more Grimm."

"It was Yang's idea, actually." Though that was likely less of a comfort for Pyrrha, it was the truth. "Yang won't let anything happen to him, and besides, he's a skilled hunter in his own right."

"That I don't deny." Pyrrha said with a soft smile. "He has gotten very powerful, and continues to grow stronger by the day. Honestly, I know that's why Yang suggested it. Jaune can withstand a great deal of damage, as can Yang, making them perfect targets for luring Grimm…" Her smile fell however, as she grew more serious and thoughtful. "I still feel as though the entire practice of capturing Grimm is revolting. Keeping them alive only to be slain later is a terrible practice."

"It isn't as if we have a choice. Everyone needs to start somewhere. I was fifteen the first time I killed a Grimm…if you could really call it that." Weiss said, not liking to recall the situation, but it was what made her a huntress. "When I first decided I wanted to be a huntress, my father captured a baby Ursa. Just a little cub really. No bigger than the size of a housecat. He forced me to kill it in cold blood. Strangely, it was easier than I thought it would be."

"I was fourteen, attending Sanctum." Pyrrha replied in kind. "Funny how as a student, I never thought twice about how those Grimm were acquired."

"You weren't the only one." Weiss said. "I never thought to ask where Port happened to get all of his Grimm…but you're not the youngest I've heard of. Ruby was eleven for her first kill. Yang was thirteen."

"Ren and Nora were eight." Pyrrha sighed at that. "When I even think about that, I know you're right. I understand why it needs to be done. I only wish circumstances were different, or at the very least that we weren't the ones trapping the Grimm."

"Many noble practices are usually the most unsavory when you really take the time to look at them."

"And you would consider being a huntress one such thing?"

"Being a huntress, is a personal choice." Weiss said. "But choosing to teach huntsmen in general, man or woman, that's questionable. Taking children, and teaching them how to slay a Grimm. Furthermore, doing that knowing just what kind of danger you plan to put them in…" It was yet another moral grey area to say the least. "I would say that's more unsavory than the capture of Grimm itself, wouldn't you?"

"We were those children once, you know. To me, it didn't seem as cruel as what you just described."

"But now that I've described it that way, it's hard not to scrutinize it. Correct?" Weiss gave her something of a look. "If you could go back and get a degree in something else, would you?"

For a while, Pyrrha silently wondered that. "No." It wasn't the first time she considered such a question. "The system maybe flawed, and yes, it is questionable. We are right to think critically about what can be done better….what should be. In spite of the flaws though, I do not regret it." Her answer was always the same. "There is nothing I would rather be."

Weiss nodded. "Exactly."

* * *

Let it not be said that Ruby Rose was a coward. She was many things, but a coward wasn't one of them. In fact, it was Ruby's bravery that stuck out the most in her youth, when her shy personality often worked against her. Blake recalled her first impression of the girl, which, at the time was exactly what Ruby was. A girl who was far too young to be attending Beacon, and far too naive for her own good. A child, Blake had called her, and Ruby had looked the part.

All of those assumptions shattered the moment that selfsame fifteen year old fearlessly beheaded a Nevermore. No child would have been able to do that. A particularly young huntress in training, yes. A child, no. Blake had always considered herself a particularly good judge of character, but in that bone chilling moment, she had been proven terrifyingly wrong.

And, unfortunately for Blake's self-sense of pride, she was wrong about all of her teammates. Ruby was not just a naive little girl. Weiss was not just a pampered, bratty heiress. Yang was not just laughter and smiles, blind of judgement, and of hardship…no. Blake had been so entirely and completely wrong.

So, she shouldn't have been surprised to be proven wrong again as Ruby straddled her lap. An action that was both alarming, and yet so very welcome. It was late, Ace was asleep in Yang's bed, surrounded by pillows and Blankets to keep her safe and warm.

"I don't have dust on me anymore." Ruby said quietly.

"No, you don't." Blake said, inhaling the lingering scents of soap, shampoo, and body butter. All of it from the same line, a very gentle and soothing floral scent that wouldn't disturb the delicate nose of the Faunus using it. Her throat suddenly very dry as she realized Ruby had used her products. "Ruby, did you…" Blake nipped on her own tongue. That was a stupid question, of course she did.

"Ace sneezes whenever I use my stuff." Ruby replied. "You've never complained, but somehow I get the feeling that my body wash and shampoo are too harsh for you two."

That…well…that wasn't entirely wrong. It was overpowering and detracted from Ruby's natural scent. Blake pushed the inherent eroticism of the act away, Ruby had no idea just how intoxicating such an admission was to the primal corner of her brain. "Mm." The distracted reply was all she could offer at that moment, as the obvious fact of the matter smacked her rationality askew again.

Ruby Rose was sitting in her lap, facing her, and the intention was quite clear. She wanted attention and no book was going to get in the way of that. In case it hadn't been crystal clear though, the obvious invitation that followed left no question. "Ace is asleep, so no interruptions."

"For a short while." Blake agreed, her book all but forgotten. "Um, Ruby…this is all just a bit forward, don't you think?"

"I've sat on your lap before." Ruby said with a shrug.

"Well, yes, but…erm." Schooling her frazzled brain back into some clobbered and congealed form of propriety was not an easy thing to do. Not when faced with the object of her affection so close, and yet so far away. _'Head out of the gutter, Belladonna! This is not that sort of invitation!'_ She mentally berated herself, even as the palms of her hands fell onto unusually smooth bare legs. It took every ounce of effort not to follow that path northward just to see if Ruby was equally as smooth and enticing above the knee too. Slamming her eyes shut, she settled for brutal honesty. "Ruby, I'm going to start getting ideas…"

"Oh, you were reading one of the books from the top shelf again, weren't you?"

"Yes." Blake deadpanned awkwardly.

"Was it a good part that I interrupted?"

Blake cracked her eye open. Met with that same shy disposition that she had come to know from her friend turned…well…was lover even the right word? Probably not, not just yet, but it was entirely adorable all the same. "Very. Here, this is what I was reading."

Blake showed Ruby the page in question. There was no use hiding it, Ruby was well aware of Blake's unquestionable libido. It existed as part and parcel of who she was as a person. She wasn't as lewd and crass as Yang when asked about the subject, but she wasn't ashamed of herself. Just like Yang, Blake was known to put her articles of clothing on door handles too...keeping people out during particularly private moments of relaxation.

This wasn't one of those times, but if she had gotten far enough into her reading, it could have been.

"Steamy…" Ruby murmured having scanned the page.

"I know you weren't insinuating anything such as what goes on in that book, but, regardless…" Blake trailed off. "I don't know quite what it is that you _are_ insinuating and I don't…" She blushed as she looked away. "I don't want to push too far."

"It's just what we talked about before...I was thinking about it…" Ruby said slowly, closing the distance, pulling Blake into a hug that pressed their bodies impossibly close as she rested her forehead on Blake's shoulder. "I'm always going to be a little nervous. If I don't start somewhere, then we're going to end up not starting at all, and I know for sure I don't want to go back to the way things were before."

Blake pulled away slightly, seeing the hopefulness at war with the worry. Childlike innocence muddied by delusions of a woman's desires. "Then, may I kiss you?" Blake asked, watching Ruby nod ever so slightly under the careful study of golden eyes.

It was soft, tender, nothing deep or heavy. Merely a press of lips, a wisps of escaped breath that promised more. Easy to back away from, and meet eye-to-eye once more. Then Blake wordlessly posed question, Ruby answered by another nod. The second kiss was not so gentle, and the obsidian haired woman was no longer the statue she forced herself to be. Her hands lifted, cupping a blushing cheek with her left, and running through tresses of brown and red with her right.

There was nothing innocent or childlike about this kiss, an outpouring of emotion. Her teeth nipped carefully along Ruby's pouty lower lip, not enough to hurt, but enough to warn her that they were there. A soft rumble, not quite a purr, not exactly a growl, punctuated her sentiment, as those teeth dragged away.

The tip of her tongue dancing along the edge as she pulled away once more. Another examination, another question posed to the shivering Ruby Rose. "Are you okay?"

"Ace isn't the only one who has sharp teeth." Ruby laughed slightly, still entirely out of her element. Even so, she didn't mind the outcome.

"Mm." Blake nodded, she had sharp eye-teeth too. Powerful enough to bite through flesh without much effort. "All carnivore Faunus do. Was that too much? Do they scare you?"

Ruby seemed to think on it, but shook her head, her voice ever so quiet. "No…it's not too much. It's just…" She tried looking for words she couldn't seem to find as she tucked herself into Blake. She sighed contently at the feel of that, the rightness of it all. "Can we just stay like this tonight? I don't want to be anyplace else."

Blake grabbed the crumpled up blanket from the edge of the bed and flung it over the both of them. It was her only answer before turning off the bedside lamp. Then she picked up a different book from the nightstand, whispering the beloved tale of the four maidens into Ruby's ear.


	14. Chapter 14

"Soo then, you and Ruby are a thing now?"

"Yes, Yang…" Blake sighed as she rolled her eyes. "If you have to put it that way."

"What other way is there to put it?" Yang asked on her break, feet up on her desk as she leaned back on the legs of the chair. She tilted the scroll in her one hand to face her, while the other acted as a pillow for her head.

"I don't know..." Blake trailed, a hint of aggravation in her tone. "Something more respectable, such as in a relationship, or seeing each other..."

Yang snickered. "Not that you haven't seen it all before."

"Yang, damn it." Blake rolled her eyes. "I thought we were going to have an actual conversation about this."

"What do you want me to do, Blake, give you the 'hurt Ruby and die' speech? We both know it doesn't work like that, especially not for you guys." From the visual feed, Yang could see Ace guarding a long slender box. "Uh, Blake, is that the cling wrap?"

"The tinfoil box." Blake said as she looked over her shoulder. Ace was protecting her treasure mercilessly. "It's empty, and I pulled off the mental that was on the outside. She's been obsessed with it ever since I let her have it. Now back to what we were talking about before, stop being a pain in the butt."

"It's fine with me." Yang laughed as she popped herself back upright with a thud. "I don't care that you're dating Ruby, you have my blessing and all that jazz obviously..."

"Yang!"

"Alright, alright, and I swear I won't tease the crap out of my little sister." Yang finished. "Are you happy now?"

"Slightly appeased, yes." Blake murmured.

"Okay, look, I'll level with you…outside from the obvious physical things, there isn't anything the two of you haven't done together already that a couple wouldn't do…right?"

"I suppose…"

"So, then, been there done that, have the t-shirt, right?" Yang continued. "Just, you know, take it slow with her."

Blake let loose a long suffering sigh. "When I brought up the matter of being delicate about intimacy, I wasn't asking for sex tips."

"I'd hope to god not!" Yang interjected. "I meant go slow dating her, got doing... _that_..."

"Knowing your brain, who knew what the heck you were thinking?" Blake's only comfort in all of it was Yang's deeply disturbed expression. She decided to simply spell it out to avoid any more awkwardness. "Yang...do you remember Beacon…whenever you and I tried to get a moment of peace, and then someone would barge in on us?"

"Cock blocked by my own sis-" Yang chuckled then. "Oh...oh okay...can't find a little you-two time with Ace around, huh?"

"One could say that." Blake said as her ears curled a bit in her shyness, she had something she wanted to ask Yang directly, but it was still awkward. "We were lucky enough to have last night to ourselves, but Ace has a nose and her curiosity is a little too off-putting to Ruby."

"What'd she do, get in-between you two while you were canoodling or something?"

"No, thank god." Blake said while rolling her eyes. "She's sniffing at us a lot more than usual. Ruby's obviously uncomfortable with Ace having any sort of sensory input of the situation. Even if she's too little to fully understand what her nose is telling her."

"Yeah, no shit. I'd be uncomfortable too if I were her...no offense."

"None taken." Blake brushed off simply. "However, that's kind of the point I'm trying to make. I don't think Ruby would be all that fond of you knowing what exactly we get up to, either. It would mean a lot to me if we reconsidered sleeping arrangements around the house. Ruby's been staying in my bed with me for three days in a row, and it's a trend I don't want to break…but I know she's not going to want to share the bed with me if you're in the room."

"Honestly, kind of don't want to see that either. Might be innocent now, sure as hell isn't going to be later. So, maybe just move my shit in with Weiss, and I'll bunk with her." Yang said after some thought. "We bunk here as it is, so why not at home too, right?"

"But is she okay with that?" Blake asked. "It's everyone's house, not just mine and Ruby's."

"I'll ask."

"Please don't bellow…" Too late, her ears flattened back preemptively.

"Weiss!"

Her ears were ringing, and she grit her teeth. "Sometimes, I really, really I hate you."

"About to hate me even more, Blakey, but I promise you'll love me again soon enough." Yang winked.

"What do you want now?" Weiss sighed a moment later as she came into view, hands on her hips in exasperation.

"Ruby and Blake are on the verge of fucking and-"

"Stop!" Weiss ordered, palm firmly planted over Yang's mouth. "Not another word, Xiao Long. Don't even finish that sentence. If you do, I'll freeze your mouth closed, understood?" Her friend nodded, and Weiss very slowly, move her hand, as if she didn't trust Yang to keep quiet. "Now would either one of you like to try that again?"

"Certainly-" Yang said before Weiss cut her off.

" _Without_ being crass." She ordered, wagging a finger. "I meant what I said about freezing your mouth shut."

"Right…" Yang nodded. "Well, to put it least crassly, Nora owes us fifty lien each, and Pyrrha and I had a side bet, so now she's got to throw down."

"Oh my god…you made betting pools." Blake said, one hand hiding her face. "Yang, you complete ass…"

"I promised not to tease Ruby. I never said I wasn't going to harass the hell out of you." Yang grinned, not at all remorseful about the dual blushes painting her friend's cheeks. Blake out of mortification, and Weiss for being so scandalized at the mere thoughts turning around in her head. She turned back to Weiss. "Wasn't exactly kidding though, they're together-together, as Nora would say."

"And you needed to tell me this right now, in the middle of our shift?" Weiss shot back.

"Err, well, I mean, not trying to be gross but sex is only a matter of time. It makes sense to give them the same room, so we don't have to deal with it, right?"

"Yes, well when you put it that way…" Weiss said, clearing her throat. "Blake you have my blessing to switch out Ruby's things for Yang's. Now then, I propose that we forget this conversation ever happened."

Blake also swallowed down her own embarrassment. "Agreed." She said solemnly. "Right, Yang?"

"Yeah, yeah…I hear you Blakey." Yang said with a small smirk. "But as both your ex-girlfriend and Ruby's big sister, I still get to drive you nuts."

* * *

"It was a bet we made under juvenile inebriation, surely you cannot hold me to it now after all of these years." Pyrrha said as and Yang rested from a grueling session of deadlifts in the gym. One warm shower later, and they were both soaking in induvial bathtubs. The white privacy screens pulled together so they could look over and talk amongst themselves, without giving anyone else a show. "We were still in Beacon back then."

"Still going to hold you to it." Yang said as she wetted her washcloth once more and draped it over her ample bosom. "The deal was one date with your crush."

"What if I don't have one?"

"What if I know that's total bullshit?"

"Do you realize how completely irresponsible such a bet is? We're not teenagers anymore, and for all you know, the crush could be you." Pyrrha pressed. "We both know how disinterested you would be to actually go on a date with me."

"But it isn't me, Pyrrha." Yang said knowingly. "I don't know who you're most interested in nowadays, but I know I'm nowhere near what you're looking for. I mean, I'm a chick for one."

"So?" Pyrrha asked, mildly offended. "What does you being a woman have to do with anything?"

"Uh, you're not into girls?" Yang said with less confidence than she would like. "I mean, unless you are…but even so, it's not like you actually _look_ at me when you could. Like right now for example, I'm sure if I hit on you right now, you'd be indifferent…or at least really bothered by it."

"That's undeniably true..." Pyrrha murmured.

"Yeah, because we're friends, but we're not that _friendly_ with each other, if you catch my drift...so anyway, you're like bisexual then?"

Pyrrha shook her head. "To be frankly honest, it's not quite as simple as male or female. I'm demisexual, so dating is slightly more complicated for me."

"You're what?" Yang had honestly never heard the term in her life.

"Demisexual." Pyrrha sighed, an old, discomforting feeling in the pit of her gut. It was a hard thing to admit. "It means I don't experience attraction the way you do. I do notice why a person might be attractive, but for me, personally, that's not enough. I need to feel emotionally connected to a person before I develop a desire to even consider dating them. I've never simply had a crush based on gender or appearances. They're slow burning realizations that come to me over time."

"Okay, so like, friends…then." Yang said slowly, trying to understand.

"Well, yes, I suppose you could look at it that way. The people I'm attracted to, tend to be people I'm particularly close with." Pyrrha sighed at length. "Which, I suppose is what makes things rather difficult in the long run."

"Uh...how?"

"Well, for example, with Jaune, it was easy to fall in love." Pyrrha began slowly, fidgeting with some bubbles in the water. "He was so atypical of anyone I had ever known, he kept surprising me in all the right ways. It was easy to want a romantic relationship with him, but keeping the romance alive was the hardest thing in the world for me."

"Why?" Yang asked. It was easy going, unobtrusive, as if she really didn't mind if Pyrrha dodged the question.

"The stress, mostly." Pyrrha began. "We were partners first and foremost. That weighed on him to measure up to an impossibly high standard. His lacking of official training didn't bother me. I was ready to give him everything I had, but his faith in himself was so lacking at the time. He seemed to think so little of himself, and nothing I could say or do made it better…"

"Sounds rough...poor guy." Yang sighed. "Never realized it was that hard for him. I knew he had it rough, but not that rough."

"It was a predicament. A troubling one, which in turn made me feel entirely empty. My love for him was poisoning to the both of us, and eventually, it hurt our relationship enough that I lost attraction to him."

"I never knew…"

"That's because it was a very personal thing to do, choosing to end it as we did." Pyrrha said, maintaining her honesty. "We stayed friends, so there was never any need to explain it to anyone else."

"But you do have feelings for someone else now." Yang said, knowing Pyrrha hadn't denied it.

"Yes, I do…but she is not the sort of woman to take being hit-on lightly, even if it is by a trusted friend." The redhead replied. "I don't even think she's interested in women…"

The blonde quirked an eyebrow. "Assuming she was?"

"I have no evidence to support that she is."

"Okay, but say hypothetically she is, then what?" Yang insisted with a roll of her eyes. "Pretend that the girl is as a flaming lesbian…could not be gayer, farts sparkles and shits rainbows, would you ask this person out on a date? Yes or no?"

"I honestly don't know. I wish it was as simple as a yes or no answer, but it isn't." The imagery was quite a bit more disturbing than her mind wished to conjure, even though it promptly did so anyway. "I'm not sure if she feels connected to me in the same way, and I need that connection. It's the only way to make romance for me last at all, and she's the sort of person that's very prideful."

"Sounds like you're afraid of rejection..."

"I am, a little bit." Pyrrha said softly. "So, until I know for sure that everything feels right between this person and myself, I simply cannot ask her to be anything more than my friend."


	15. Chapter 15

Cat Faunus were prone to fear. Young ones were easily startled, and new things were very, very intimidating. As curious as young ones could be, they were also easily spooked by strange and new situations. With sensitive little noses and acute hearing, even the most adventuresome Faunus child normally wasn't keen to stray too far away from the safety of their parents. Children also had a mind to be aggressive in their fear, particularly to strangers that they'd never met before.

So, enter in Qrow. A boorish, crude, loud man. He reeked of booze, and had a propensity to ruffle up someone's hair as a form of affection. It amounted to a recipe for one very upset little girl. Ace snarled from under the sofa, peeking out from the space between Blake's legs to hiss and spit in Qrow's general direction, before cowering back behind her protector's legs again as soon as Qrow moved even the slightest bit.

"What the hell was that for?" Qrow asked, looking at his newly mauled hand. "Kid's as bitchy as her mother."

"It's her ears." Blake said with a glower, shooting daggers with her eyes. He meant well, there was no evil, racist, or harmful intention in the act itself. He greeted Ruby the same way in her younger years, and Blake knew that. "You can't just squash them down and jostle them with your hand like that, it hurts."

"Wish someone would have told me." He shrugged, plopping himself down in the armchair.

"You would have known if you would have come here sooner." Blake growled. "Where in the hell have you been? Don't give me that Ozpin spiel, I'm not buying it."

"Honestly, it was Ozpin." Qrow replied. "Raven pronounced dead? Couldn't believe it until I saw it. Even then, I had to look into it. You don't kill a person like her and come out of it unscathed…that's like trying to take down one of you kids…someone might win one day, but not without getting their ass kicked first."

"That's real nice. Meanwhile, Ruby and Yang were having a breakdown, and Weiss and I were powerless to help."

"Blake, ease the hell up. You know just as well as I do. Some shit just isn't meant to be taken at face value…I had to be sure she was really gone. That she didn't fake it to cover her tracks. Even more than that, I needed to make sure whatever the hell it was ended there. That there weren't bigger things headed after Yang, or Ruby, or that one."

"Her name is Ace."

"Yeah, yeah…I know…"

"Qrow, this is serious." Blake frowned then, sighing. "This is your niece…your flesh and blood, and where's Taiyang been? I keep calling him and calling him, and he won't answer."

"He's in the bottle…worse than when summer died…"

"He what?"

"Tai loved Raven…loved her more than she ever really deserved. I know her distance from Yang is unforgiveable, but she had her reasons…and damn it I never understood them myself, but she was fighting her own personal war. Something we couldn't help her with. She shut all of us out." Qrow didn't make excuses for it. He hated her for it too. "She pushed us away, but Tai loved her in spite of all that. Summer loved her too…and god damn it, my sister loved them…but in Raven's head that wasn't good enough."

"Qrow, focus…" Blake snapped. "What do you mean, Taiyang is in the bottle?"

"Like I just said. He waited for Raven to come home…and instead she went off and fucked another man and had his baby…and then she died. He waited for her, all for nothing." Qrow said, his words so full of anger that they were cold, quiet, and empty. "Tai doesn't deal well with pain. He did the only thing he knew how to do. He had a drink. One leads to another, and another…you know how the story goes. He's a recovering drunk who fell off the wagon, and there's no reason for him to get his ass back on it this time."

"He does too have a reason, Yang and Ruby need him."

"No they don't, kid."

"Yes they do!"

"Blake, they're not babies." Qrow said softly his tone harsh, but fair. "They haven't needed him in a long time, not like he needs to be needed to stay clean and sober…and he hasn't come here because he's afraid to see the little squirt…Yang and Ruby have hearts that go on for miles, full of love and acceptance…but Taiyang isn't like that. Break a man too much, and he forgets how to love, and nurture, and care for another."

"That isn't an excuse."

"No, it's a damn good reason." Qrow shot back.

"I don't see how it could be.

"Asking a man to find love in his soul for another man's child isn't an easy thing to ask…not when, as he says it, 'it could have been his'." Qrow chided darkly. "It might have been one thing if Raven had brought the baby back with her. Maybe then, he could have accepted the fact that she wasn't as faithful to him as he and Summer were to her. Problem is, Raven's death, that finality and no goodbye…that was the final straw that broke him."

"Then why not at least tell that to Yang?"

"He's in too much pain to articulate anything. Yang looks at this kid and sees a baby sister…but Taiyang is afraid he's going to see betrayal…hell, I felt the same way." Qrow shook his head. He didn't expect Blake to understand. He hoped she never did. "It's why I kept my distance for so long. Why I didn't want to come around while Ruby and Yang were here. If I looked at that kiddo and felt nothing but hate towards her…I couldn't bear it if Ruby or Yang saw me like that."

"And how do you feel about her now?"

"Indifferent. Just a kid. No big deal. Same way I felt when they shoved Yang in my arms the first time. I'd just gotten back from a mission, and she was about a week old. Her eyes were still that glassy baby blue...hadn't changed yet. I get her in my arms and she takes the biggest shit known to man, all up the back and out the diaper…Raven, the naturally charming woman she was, laughed her ass off." At this, he pulled out his flask and took a large gulp. "Tell Ruby and Yang I'll be stopping by in-between missions, but that Tai needs time."


	16. Chapter 16

"Ma."

Blake stood at the sink, washcloth plopping down with a wet slap against the dinner plates. She looked down to the little girl between her legs, clawing at her jeans. She had to be hearing things. It was just a noise that sounded like a word, that's what it had to be, nothing more, nothing less. Digging through the suds, she went back to dealing with the dishes.

"Ma."

It wasn't an accident. She looked down again. "No."

Ace flattened her ears back, growling the word. "Ma."

Blake sighed, ears pressed flat against her head in kind, a deep growl issuing from her throat. She didn't quite know how to make Ace understand. "I'm not, Ace. No." She watched as those deep red eyes gazed at her, head cocking to the side in confusion before a frown worked its way onto her features.

"…Ma..."

Blake sighed, letting loose a string of sounds that were entirely inhuman. She hoped Ace might better understand, but at the end of it all, she was met with a purring little Faunus cub who still continued to think of her as a parent.

"Ma."

The entire issue was something she expected, but it was every bit as dreaded as a flock of Grimm. Blake walked over to the attic door, yanking it down and disappearing for a few moments before coming back with a box. She opened it, pulling out the sword and sheath, setting it down on the coffee table. It still smelled like Raven, the hints of her existence lingering faintly among the metal and dust cased on the inside. It smelled strongest at the hilt, the fabric there seemingly handled often by the human woman.

Ace was a curious little girl, and took to the new object on the table with a mix of interest and trepidation.

"This is your mom, Ace." Blake said softly, knowing the familiarity among shared blood was a strong thing. Raven, Qrow, Yang, and ultimately Ace, shared the scent of family. A low whine worked up from the little girl, and with flattened back ears, she scrambled behind Blake. Shushing her wasn't an easy thing, as she introduced the small child to the smell of the human woman who birthed her.

* * *

"So, is she tall, or short?"

"Her figure is more than adequate."

"Stop being coy…taller or shorter than you?"

"Shorter."

This was the new game that Yang had come up with to pass the long hours by while at the gym. Barbells in hand, she focused her training. "Makes sense, you are tall for a chick…so, eye color?"

"Unfair advantage." Pyrrha shot back. "Yang I told you, you can't ask the sort of questions that would give her away."

"Its fine, I think I've got it anyway. You've got a thing for Weiss." Yang said, earning a set of green eyes gawking at her from across the divide. "What? Not hard to figure out."

"I'm…listening…" Pyrrha said slowly.

"Well, you're not exactly a social butterfly, even if you know how to act like one. It's a chick, and it's not me…Nora's all over Ren, but she's not judgmental. You know Blake's been around the block with a few women, so can't be her. Coco's not hiding what she does with Fox and Velvet. They are so open they were notorious back in Beacon. Isn't Ruby, she hangs all over everyone in JNPR, and I've never seen you act weird when she hugs you."

"That still doesn't explain how you came to such a conclusion so quickly." Pyrrha said, sitting up from the weight bench she had been laying on. "For all you know, I do entertain other friends."

"Weiss is the only one you'll spend all night drinking a bottle of wine with. You two talk a lot, and before you go getting all weird on me, she's also the only person we all know that buries her sexuality under the rug." Yang said softly. "And between you and me, Weiss is flaming. There's not a hint of male anatomy in her porn stash. It's as lesbian and vanilla as you could get."

"I'm sure that was meant to be personal information." Pyrrha protested.

"You've heard worse from Nora."

"Then I will tell you the same thing I repeatedly tell her." Pyrrha sighed with a shake of her head. "Language filter. Use it."

"I've filtered it just fine, you're not exactly a gossip risk." Yang said, which Pyrrha had to agree was more than a little true.

"Even so, that's hardly information to be spreading around." Pyrrha chastised gently. "Suppose she finds that information very personal, you've now just aired it publicly."

"Yeah to you…but the bet still goes." Yang said. "You really should just ask her out on a date."

"Ask who out on a date?" Jaune asked, having overheard part of the conversation as he stepped out of the men's locker room.

"No one, Jaune." Pyrrha said, lairing at her friend. "Yang's being...Yang."

* * *

Nighttime was beginning to be a new adventure in bravery in Ruby's life. As a woman with newly vested and romantic interest, she was quick to melt under Blake's gentle and guiding hands. Ruby's head was swimming. It all felt so good. Blake's body pressed up against hers in a heated kiss that stole her breath away. She was starting to love it, the feel of those sharp teeth that toyed with her lower lip, tugging ever so gently to ask for entry.

The kiss depending in mind-numbing fervor when the shallow tease of Blake's slightly rough tongue toyed with her own. The sensation was thrilling, very new still, but exciting all the same. Blake's affections were as human, as they were cat-like. Her kisses, which were most definitely human, came with the sounds of purring, which was surely not.

There was a sense of feral, untamed passion in the Faunus, eyes slitting in the darkness and gleaming in the shadows.

Ruby was ever careful where her hands wandered, fingers trailing tentatively across fabric and heated skin. She focused on the kiss, of Blake's body pressed against her own. The heat pooling, the feeling of arousal. She began to sink into the emotion of the act entirely, until she startled herself, seeing cat's eyes looking back at her again.

Ruby cursed in a small sound as she broke the kiss breathlessly. Eyes closed as she clung onto Blake as though life itself depended on it. It was so intense, too intense, too soon.

There was something about the claws on her hip. Unsettling in combination with the softness if the rumbling in Blake's chest, and catlike gaze. Those predatory eyes were the last straw. Ruby understood it was inherently natural. Something that Blake's body seemed to do on its own when otherwise occupied. Blake would never hurt her, not with her claws, or her fangs.

That was the logical conclusion, but, seeing those feral features would take some getting used to.

"Do you need to stop?" Blake asked, feeling Ruby nod wordlessly into her shoulder. It wasn't the first time this had happened. That had been the other night when Ruby and glued herself upon Blake's lap in a refusal to move. "I didn't hurt you, did I?" She felt more than heard the muffled response that no, Blake hadn't hurt her. "Ruby…" Her voice was gentle, ever so much so. "What's wrong?"

It was obviously the wrong thing to ask, because she felt Ruby tense up even more, curling inward, both into herself, and into Blake. Very carefully, lost with what to do, she pulled away enough to glimpse into silver eyes. What she saw there concerned her. Laced within those metal pools there was nothing short of anxiety, guilt, and something else…an emotion that Blake was very intimately acquainted with herself.

Shame.

She huffed out a small breath, letting Ruby bury herself back into Blake's embrace once more. They stayed like that for several long, agonizing moments. "I don't know why." Ruby began when she pulled away, the statement obviously turned and turned from an internal struggle. Something that was itself a tornado. "I don't….your eyes…" Ruby shook her head. "I wasn't expecting them to get like that."

She blinked several times in confusion before it dawned on her. "Aroused?" Blake voiced, feeling as though she was dancing along cracked eggshells.

"Oval slits...like...well..."

"A cat." Blake finished for her gently.

Ruby nodded, those pools of molten gold had already returned to normal. Ruby desperately wished they'd stay that way. "It's…not just that…it's everything else too…I'm not used to this….to myself, or to you…to any of _this_."

"But you do get that way too." Blake observed, the evidence was clear as day to her nose. It was in the salty, heady scent that ghosted along Ruby's skin, a fragrance all its own. Like fire crackling and snapping beneath the other soft scents Ruby had inadvertently picked up going about her day. "What do you normally do, once you are?"

"I wait for it to go away…I try not to be."

Blake bit the inside of her cheek. It was probably too soon to ask, but the question bubbled and twisted itself outward and into the freedom of the air. "You don't…touch yourself…at all?"

Ruby shook her head. "I don't…"

"Why not?"

"It's…" Ruby doubted there was a right way to explain, finally she settled with a shrug. "I don't know…maybe something's just wrong with me."

Blake frowned, brows crunching up in confusion. "Nothing's wrong with you…" Blake said pulling her close once more, feeling her shiver in response. "Ruby, I promise, there's nothing wrong…"

"I get that." Ruby said quietly, embarrassment in her tone. "I've tried, but I think to myself that I'm alone. That I don't _want_ to be alone. But, if that's true, trying to fiddle with myself is stupid, so what's the point?" Ruby asked with a shrug. "Then I get stuck thinking of it all. The stuff I always hear, like that I have to be able to love myself before I love others. Masturbating is healthy, everyone does it, and I should do it too. That the person I choose to be with will never know what I like, unless I know what to tell them..."

"Well…" Blake coughed, she'd heard Yang and Coco spout some similar things in the past. Blake knew she most certainly had, especially during a few choice fights when Weiss had barged into the dorm room unannounced. "Sage advice, I suppose."

"More like one big laundry list of social pressure." Ruby said despondently.

"Mm. It can be." Blake replied. "Ruby, this is a common anxiety. It's not just you…not every bit of advice is going to work for everyone, and I certainly never touched myself before I lost my virginity. Mind you, I was much younger…but like you said, we all start somewhere, or we don't start at all…it just wasn't a positive experience to you."

"Well, I guess I've beaten that into my head hard enough that I started to believe it…because I should want to feel aroused by you, right?" Ruby asked darkly. "But, I'm already nervous, and then when your eyes turn all…" Ruby shrugged, looking away again. "My reflex is to stop, because what if you're…not you? I started thinking about that, and freaked myself out."

"Is that was you glued yourself to me after we kissed that first night?"

"Yeah."

"So I did scare you…"

"It wasn't you." Ruby insisted. "It's me. I'm just an idiot."

"Did it ever occur to you that Faunus manage to scare themselves over their own instincts all the time?" Blake asked her softly, watching as Ruby shook her head. "We do, more often than you might think. I'd be more worried if seeing me like that didn't bother you on some level at first."

"I don't want to be bothered by it." Ruby announced in quiet protest.

"I'm a predator Faunus, and that takes some getting used to. Don't push yourself too far out of your comfort zone for my sake. I don't want that." Blake said, propping herself up on her side, chin and cheek resting in the palm of her hand. "More importantly, don't think so hard about all the other stuff. It's not as big a deal as everyone makes it sound…if I can hold you in my arms whenever I want, or tell you I love you, that's enough for me..."


	17. Chapter 17

Living in such a small shared living space was weird when there were men around. Normally she was the one turning heads and causing shouting from across the room to put some clothes on. Bunking with someone as prim and proper as Weiss was all sorts of fun in Beacon, only to see her female teammates flustered. With an upraised brow of surprise, she gawked at the eye-candy that strutted across the room as if he owned the place.

Yang was no longer the target of ire for the heiress…this man, however, was.

The men of team CFVY weren't shy in the least, or so it seemed. Fox tossed his towel on his bed letting it all hang out for the world to see. Thankfully, that world only currently consisted of Yang and Coco. The latter of the two let out a low whistle, wearing a smirk that said she was more than satisfied with her man.

"Uh, Fox, you do know I'm in here, right?" Yang asked, grabbing one of her paperbacks out of her personal shelf by the bed. Not that she didn't appreciate the unexpected view, but she made a habit of trying not to ogle people who were already taken, man or woman…and Fox, he was already completely committed to Coco and Velvet. "Not that I really care or anything, but, just a heads up."

"You're not a prude." He deadpanned, pulling on a pair of boxers. "Be different in Schnee was around. No one wants to hear her screeching bloody murder again."

"Point." The blonde replied, slightly less focused on managing where her eyes wandered now that he was back to being partially covered. "But, uh, I mean, I know you can't see worth a damn, but I can. Don't know if you want me looking away or something when you do that."

"Beacon rules, I say." Coco said offhandedly. "If you don't want to be ogled, keep it covered. If someone's walking around naked, and you don't want to see, don't look. Though trying to tell that to Fox is completely pointless."

"It's just a dick, not anything either of your two haven't seen before." He said, climbing up into Coco's bunk. "Only one I need to worry about is Schnee, and she's off with Nikos and Arc again."

"Weiss and Pyrrha, interesting and Jaune too..." Coco trailed off. "Hey Yang, do they go missing together a lot?"

"Kind of, I guess." Yang shrugged, putting her reading down. "Why?"

"Just wondering how many couples we've got going on here." Coco said honestly.

"Oh, well, they're not." Yang replied conversationally. "They're just good friends. Besides, Jaune doesn't have that kind of game. Good man, don't get be wrong, just not the kind that could keep up with two girls at once. Why where you wondering something like that anyway?"

"Well, damn, way to trample the issue." Coco laughed. "The broom closet isn't that big. If we can find some way to move the hanky-panky in here, I'm going to try for it. I figured if we had enough people in the same boat, we might be able to reach an agreement about some private time after shift."

"Oh my god." Yang gawked, humor dancing in her eyes and she tried to hold back her snickering. "You guys didn't actually use that tiny square hell hole, did you?"

"We did." Fox confirmed.

"Good god, you all must be flexible." Yang praised, wagging an eyebrow playfully. Having seen the cramped space for herself, she knew it couldn't have been easy.

"There is nothing wrong with a lunch time quickie, I have needs." Coco said in defense of her active relationship with her two lovers. "That, and…hey Yang, real talk?"

"Okay." Yang nodded, rolling onto her side, and taming her amusement to reasonable level. "Real talk."

"Velvet gets insecure about what others think…the three of us together, well, it plays into stereotypes." Coco went on to say as she pulled off her glasses, her voice even, but serious. "Because she's a rabbit Faunus, everyone believes she's the instigator in all of this. People jump to the worst conclusions because she's a woman as well. That kind of negative attention bothers her, but we all love each other, and I'm going to do my best to keep that spark alive."

"Speaking of, where did she get to?" Yang asked. "Whenever she's off shift and isn't sleeping, she busts out of this room like it's on fire."

"She's with Yatsuhashi. They've always been team partners, so they go off to bond amongst themselves. His friendship means a lot to her."

The blonde mulled it over a little, her turn of phrase absentminded. "Never would have guessed that."

"When we were just students, Velvet had a lot of social anxiety. On our initiation day, she was pushed into a weapon's locker and he ended up peeling the door back to get her out…turns out they both ended up late to the outskirts. After Goodwitch found out why they were late, she pardoned them for being tardy and let them take the ignition anyway under the stipulation they paired together by default."

"Oh." Yang then gave the two love birds openly spooning across the room a huge grin. "And you two?"

"We were also late." Fox smirked cockily. "Recreational activities made us lose track of time."

"What he means to say is that we were both high as kites." It wasn't her finest moment, and her first few years in Beacon, she was known for her troublesome ways, but they didn't last. Not as a team leader, not when she needed to be sober. "I was having a toke back behind one of the trees, he started chatting me up. The next thing I know, we're both hauling ass to the meet-up point, after getting bitched out by Goodwitch, Ozpin made the executive decision to keep the four of us together."

"And the rest as they say, is history?" Yang smirked.

"Pretty much." Coco laughed. "So, back in the day, how did you end up on the same team as your little sister?"

"Well, that's kind of a long story. A fluke, really." Yang chuckled then, leaning back in her own bed. "You know what they say about being at the right place, at the right time? That's what happened with Ruby. It all started with a robbery at a nearby dust shop…"

* * *

A new week started, and the household was suddenly not quite so quiet. Yang and Weiss were back home, and little Ace couldn't have been more happy, excited, and defensive all at the same time. At first she was a purring little bundle of love and cuddles, but Yang was rudely awakened at dinner time when she realized the littlest sister of the family could be more than a little hot tempered.

"Sooo, uhhh that's a thing…" Yang murmured to herself, giving Blake a confused glance. "Erm, now what?"

"Food aggression." Blake said with a shrug. "Just take your plate back."

"So she starts snarling at me again?" Yang shook her head. "Yeah, I don't think so."

Ruby reached out, swiping the steak, pea, and potato plate away from the tiny apex predator, ignoring the snarling that resulted as she swatted the girl on the behind. "Enough now, that's not yours." She put the plastic plate with smaller portions in front of the little girl. "This is yours."

"And to think, she used to be such a sweet little girl." Weiss replied as she enjoyed her own meal. "The family resemblance grows more prominent by the day."

"Hey!" Yang barked. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"That she's just as rash and emotionally charged as you are, Yang." Weiss told the blonde. "It's not entirely a bad thing you know…you just both have your moments of being impossible to reason with, let's just put it that way."

"She's been doing that ever since she started cutting in her back teeth. Sharp little things too." Ruby added. "She going after yours because it's so rare I think. Weiss and I only like ours a little bit pink."

"Rare? This is what's known as medium-rare, thank you very much." Yang laughed. "I'm not the one who wants my meat mooing."

"You people don't know what you're missing." Blake said, lobbing off half of her steak into a big chunk. "Watch this." She said, holding the juicy chunk of rare steak out for the girl, who launched herself at it without restraint, growling as she tore into the meat happily.

It was a bit disturbing the first time any human saw what a Faunus was truly capable of, and Weis had no way to articulate her confusion well. "Well, that's just a bit…"

"Animalistic?" Blake said sarcastically.

"I was going to say uncouth." Weiss shot back. "Teach her to use utensils, like a normal child."

"She'll get there." Blake said, unconcerned as the small Faunus made a mess of herself, and the food. "First we need to get her used to eating food from her own plate…which would work better if Ruby wasn't so intent on overcooking everything."

"Yeah, but…blood is gross." She protested, watching as Blake smirked, rolling her eyes.

"Ace doesn't seem to think so." Yang replied, crinkling her nose. "She's going to need a bath after that."

"Well it's your turn Yang." Ruby told her with something of a grin. One that held only the faintest bit of pity. The factuality of it all reminding Yang just how unhappy Ace would be at the sight of the water, soap, and the brushing of her hair in the aftermath. "Blake and I are going to a movie tonight, so you're on your own."

"That's fine, Weiss and I can hold down the fort."

"Don't look at me." Weiss said with a shake of her head. "I'm going to go play mahjong tonight with Pyrrha, Ren, and Jaune. You're on your own."

"Well, crap…at least send Nora over to keep me company."

"I think that went without saying." Blake deadpanned. "If you two hype Ace all up before bedtime, I swear to god, you're dealing with the aftermath. I'm not coming home to a toddler on a sugar rush ever again..."

Weiss blinked before giving Ruby a menacing glare, fork stabbing into the side salad with vengeance. "I don't know how, and I don't know why, but I know you're to blame for that statement, Ruby Rose..."


	18. Chapter 18

Ruby didn't want to admit it at first, but navigating a relationship after having been strictly friends for so long was an odd thing to do. Maybe because it was the first relationship she'd ever had. Maybe it was because Blake truly meant something to her. Either way, the lines of that long and carefully cherished friendship had been steadily blurred. Along with it, so did every little detail, the daily occurrences taking on new definitions at every turn.

A date night sounded fantastic, but it was still just an outing, even if they weren't calling it that. Additionally, it was their first night away from responsibility, and Ruby was unsure what to do without the small mental hurdles to worry about.

Routine had been forgotten about entirely, in favor of more personal gratification.

Ace was being taken care of back home, and there was no one to get in the way of the two of them. For the first time in several days, they had the whole evening to themselves. They'd chosen a romantic comedy at the theater and a night out on the town, wandering around Vale in an aimlessly fashion. Arm in arm, they'd browsed a few shops, and passed by a street performer. At the end of the night, they took the long scenic route home, passing by the larger homes they could never hope to buy with their current income.

And, while all of that was well and good, Ruby was just as happy to go home. She slipped off her shoes, and curled up with Blake to stare mindlessly at whatever blared across the television screen.

This, Ruby concluded, was a normal thing to do. The way it would be, and the way it should be.

There was a routine for moments like this, something easy and familiar. Blake sipped hot tea, and she chose hot chocolate. When Blake had charge of the remote, the viewing took a sharp lurch towards liberal news stations, classic movie channels, and the cooking network. When Ruby had control of the remote, game show channels, prime-time sitcoms, and Grimm documentaries took center stage.

"When did I grow up into such a boring person?" Ruby wondered aloud, causing her girlfriend's ear to swivel.

It was as if she had almost missed the murmured question. "Boring?"

"Yeah, I mean, don't you think I am?" Ruby continued, the soft question carried between thoughtful whispers.

"No, I don't so." Blake said, her lips ghosting the mug in her hands. "What brought that on?" She took another sip of her tea.

"I never expected to suddenly become an extrovert or something crazy like that. I just thought I might be interested in some sense of adventure." Ruby said, setting aside her empty mug. "Instead, I'm sitting here watching this sorry excuse for a hunter as he follows a flock of griffons. No hunter in his right mind would let a whole flock get away without at least blasting a few tracking chips into the bigger ones…and even then, the only hunter I've ever seen do that to a Grimm is Oobleck."

Hearing that made Blake laugh as she turned off the television. "Which is probably why you don't like adventure as much as the next person. Ruby, you've never really had the chance to settle down. Life's just one big forward leap after another to you. I'd imagine anyone would get tired with that eventually. Besides, you hit the nail on the head earlier, you're not an extrovert."

"I'm just surprised it doesn't get old fast. I guess, I just thought you'd think it was boring."

"Not very likely."

Golden eyes slid closed and Blake stretched. Her arms landing around Ruby's midriff, pulling her closer. "It's not something I like to admit, but it probably has more to do with being a Faunus than my personality." Blake said, allowing her voice to be muffled into Ruby's shoulder. "Being raise among the White Fang, stability was a tenuous thing."

Ruby hummed an acknowledgement.

"Faunus rallies were unstable places. The older I grew, the more unstable the world around me became. I'd only just gotten a taste of what it meant to have a stable lifestyle when I went to Beacon. I didn't even know how to cope with that at first. Now that I know what it means to have some measure of safety and security, I'm just not willing to gamble all of that away."

"I wish I had a better understanding of what you went through growing up." Ruby said softly.

"No, you don't."

"Hmm? Why not? Is it because you don't think I can handle the truth?"

Blake press a kiss to the nape of Ruby's neck. "You can't see the difference between us. Humans and Faunus aren't the same, and mercifully, you're blind to those little things. To me especially, you just don't see what everyone else does. I never want to give you any reason to start seeing those differences."

"That doesn't mean I don't see them, Blake, I just choose not to let those things shape the way I look at someone." Ruby told her. "I don't think that's mercy, I just think it's the way things should be."

Blake weight the response, another kiss for good measure acting like the balm against her worries. "Honestly, Ruby, it's a slippery slope."

"Why does it have to be like that, though?"

Blake sighed. "All Faunus ask themselves; at what point do our instincts end, and our personality begin? The two are bound so tightly together, I wonder about it sometimes. Of course, Ace makes some things much more obvious than I ever would, but she's little. She has no concept of cruelty. You don't bat an eye when it comes to her, either."

"Why would I?"

"A better way to look at it is; you're a human, so why wouldn't you?"

Ruby uplifted a brow. "Because I know she's just a baby. She's not even two yet, and if you're not worried about the things she does, why should I be?"

The candid response made Blake smile. "You don't have a hateful bone in your body." She said, as though that was her answer for everything. "Trust me, that's a good thing, and it doesn't need to change. You don't need to understand my past, honestly, I hope you never do. Understanding that would mean you'd have to understand why humans hate Faunus in the first place."

"If you say so." Ruby murmured, her fingers reaching up to sink into long black tresses, and further still to the base of Blake's ears. Ever so carefully Ruby began caressing the base of the one nearest her thumb. It was a passing thought. An action born of convenience, not focus, as her fingers slid lower, mapping out the small details along the nape of Blake's neck and part of her shoulder.

The cat Faunus got a lazy look in her eyes, ears drooping slightly as she melted into whatever attention Ruby deemed fit to give her, the younger woman happily curled up on Blake's lap, her own eyes closing as she listened to Blake's gentle purring.

* * *

That was exactly how Weiss found them when she crept through the door soundlessly late that evening. From the looks of things, they'd been laying that way for a while.

She disregarded it, locking the front door behind her as she made her way to her room. Yang was still awake, keeping an eye on her little sister as she stalked a tiny spider shaped Grimm that skittered up the wall in protest. "You really shouldn't let her do that." Weiss scolded, her hand landing firmly on the wall to punctuate the statement. The weight of her palm smashed the little Grimm in an instant.

"Those things are everywhere." Yang shot back offhandedly. "What do you want me to do, set the house on fire and get rid of them?"

"Grimm aren't playthings." Weis said, lifting Ace and putting her atop Yang's bed. "Not even the bugs."

"Never said they were." Yang shrugged. "I just don't think one little spider Grimm is something I need to protect Ace from. It's not like they're harmful until they get bigger anyway."

"You know the rules. No filth clogging the household, and that most certainly includes Grimm." Weiss said, smashing another one that she saw making a home in the window. "Ruby and Blake are going to have to start cleaning in here more often while we're away." Weiss replied, taking some ice dust and sprinkling it under the bed, listening to the small Grimm underneath squeal in slow painful agony as they died in mass. "My word, where did these all come from?"

"Best guess? You're looking at her…" Yang said, putting Ace back on the floor to chase another small wayward Grimm skittering about. "Grimm are attracted to negativity, and judging by the way Ace reacted when we walked through that door, she's been kind of pissy recently. Part of why all the hunters live on this side of Vale is because we can slay our own bug infestations...she's probably acting like a big sad homing device."

"Speaking of foul moods, why isn't Ace asleep?" Weiss asked, bending down to look under Yang's bed. "You know she'll be crabby in the morning." She didn't see any glowing red eyes underneath, but didn't want to leave anything to chance as she sprinkled some ice dust under Yang's bed as well.

"She won't lay down with me."

Weiss didn't seem convinced. "Is that so?"

Yang just rolled her eyes, pointing to the little girl crouched behind Yang's backpack, acting like she couldn't be seen before she darted to the other side of the room to attack a wadded up paper ball. "Does she look like she's ready to fall asleep to you?"

"Yes, actually." Weiss said, turning off the light, and scooping up the young Faunus in question. "She does, and she _is_ going to lay down."

"Oh," Yang grinned, already having failed the battle several hours before. "This outta be good."

* * *

It was a well-known fact that the household could never agree on music tastes to save their souls. While it was arguably true that Blake had the most well rounded tastes out of the four, it was anyone's guess as to what she might be in the mood for on any given day. Yang could only cringe to the sound of smooth jazz coming through the speakers in the early morning as Blake stood over the stove scrambling eggs, frying bacon, and keeping half an eye on the sliced potatoes that she had baking in the oven.

Yang didn't question it as she wordlessly made for the fridge in search of an energy drink that simply wasn't there to begin with. Grumbling curses, she made due with the nearly full liter of soda, cracking open the lid and swigging from it before carrying it to the table. Her hand come down hard on the off button to the music player, causing Blake to roll her eyes.

"I was listening to that you know." Blake said with only a minor annoyance as she looked over her shoulder.

"You were torturing me." Yang argued through a yawn. "Where's everyone else?"

"Ruby went shopping for some Grimm traps, and Weiss went next door. You were still dead to the world, and I had paperwork to sort through, so Weiss took Ace with her."

"Useless lesbians being useless, huh?" Yang chuckled, earning a curious gaze from housemate as a huge plate of breakfast was placed in front of her. "I swear, that's another situation that just needs to become a thing already…"

"I'd ask what your brain has concocted now, however, I'm also partially afraid of whatever it is you've come up with now." Blake said, coming to sit down at the table with her own breakfast.

Yang shrugged, looking down at her meal, her fork poking at the eggs cooked exactly as she liked them. Her chin rested in her free palm. "It's nothing really…it's just, for as close as people get, you'd think they'd just come right out and say it, you know? I don't get what's with all the worrying over nothing."

"Who's worrying, and are you sure it's nothing?"

"Nope, can't tell you. It's not really my place to say…but yeah, pretty sure it's nothing."

They ate in companionable silence after that. It wasn't that they didn't have plenty of things that could be said, and plenty more that should have been, it was merely that all of those conversations started with more than a few passing glances. Saying nothing at all was a shared bond between them, nonsense forgone entirely, because it simply didn't need to exist in the first place.

Instead, Yang busied herself with the thoughts still rolling around in her head from the night before. "Hey, Blake…you think Ace is happy here?"

"As opposed to where, exactly?" Blake returned.

Lilac eyes closed with a gentle sigh. "A week just seems like a lot longer after you've lived it, you know? Feels like I already missed this huge chunk of time I'm not going to get back…it's a weird thing to think about, but I keep wondering what I'm going to miss as times goes on."

"Quite a bit, I'd imagine."

"Oh, that's real comforting."

"Yang…"

"Hmm?"

"Ace isn't exactly unhappy, and when you think about it, that's about all we can hope for day by day. Give her time to get used to it, and while you're at it, give yourself the same. After all, it might not be perfect, but, this is the only childhood she'll ever come to know. Might as well enjoy it as much as we can."

Yang nodded, downing the rest of her soda, and tossing the empty bottle into the recycling bin. "Yeah, I guess you're right about that."


	19. Chapter 19

Having to share the household was both a blessing and a curse when it came to matters of intimacy. Ruby's shyness was driving Blake crazy…though, she understand why Ruby felt that way. Any other time, those timid moments would be endearing. However, for Blake, it was also a little painful…almost as if Ruby rejected her advances, though logically she knew that wasn't the case...in fact, all evidence pointed to the fact that Ruby was just a very private person, why, Blake knew to be true.

Ruby ducked her head to avoid kissing in front of Yang or Weiss. Yet, she still glued herself to Blake's side, tightening her fingertips around the fabric of Blake's shirt to keep her there. Ruby still took to sitting near Blake, or on her lap, but the action was guarded and measured. She certainly didn't weave her fingers in Blake's hair, to even think about touching the two ears atop her head. Ruby was tense even just sitting there, and the implied but unspoken no kissing rule was near murder to Blake's Faunus senses.

They might have had some free time away from Ace, which they both sorely needed, but navigating the intimate side of their relationship seemed even more difficult with Yang in the house. Though the blonde promised not to tease, Blake felt the burning scrutiny in lilac eyes. The blond was being mindful of the new couple, but, she was still Ruby's older sister. As fine with all of it as she was, the urge to protect and coddle Ruby died hard…so, although Yang bit her tongue, her glare was obvious.

There was validation in the implied threat.

Even when behind closed doors, Ruby was tense and uneasy. After several nights in a row where even making out in bed had Ruby apologizing at every turn, a change of plan was required. Thankfully, Blake had just the idea one evening when they once again had the house to themselves. She turned off faucet in the tub and sunk into the water, sighing pleasantly as it lapped at her skin.

"Are you sure about this?" Ruby asked while clinging onto her bathrobe. Naked as she was underneath, she was hesitant to part with it.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Blake asked gently, her fingertips twirling in steaming liquid. "It's nothing you haven't seen before…"

Ruby just shrugged and looked away. The bathmat had suddenly become very interesting, or at the very least, a great thing to focus on. Anything was better than her naked girlfriend, who seemed to have no qualms leaving herself on display. "But…that was back then…and this is now."

"Do you trust me?" Blake asked.

"Yes." Ruby nodded, her voice a mere whisper.

"Come here." Blake said, praying that the simple request would be enough.

After a few long moments, Ruby divested herself of the only thing hiding what little of her modesty was left, sliding into the bathtub with Blake.

The idea had come to the cat Faunus thanks to Beacon policy while being a student. If a mission lasted longer than a few hours, or took place out in the wilds, then all participating team members had to enter into a special locker room made for decontamination. Their clothes were thrown into washers and dryers. They'd have to scrub down in the showers with a special blend of lice and flea shampoo, to be sure they weren't bringing any such little critter into the student dorms. It was Beacon protocol, and no one could avoid it.

Many students abused the privilege of the seemingly unlimited hot water in the showers, and monopolized the deep bathtubs. To say that the women on team RWBY hogged the bathing area on more than one occasion was the understatement of the century, and sometimes, they'd spend the afternoon after a long mission just soaking away aches and pains…and there was certainly no shyness to be had then, that was for sure.

Blake loved hot water, so long as it was tranquil and didn't involve a lot of splashing.

Having Ruby so close, flesh to flesh, was a vast improvement as she rubbed the washcloth over Ruby's back, smirking to herself as the woman shivered slightly. They spent a while just basking together in the solitude of their own thoughts before Ruby leaned over and kissed her. The action melted her thoughts entirely, a contented sigh slipping beyond her lips.

She couldn't hold in the purr that resulted from such affection, her sense of touch keener with the lack of clothing between them. Blake kept her eyes closed the moment she felt the pang of arousal that was so familiar, and yet so dreaded. She had been trying, painstakingly so, to coax Ruby into a sense of clam when it came to witnessing Faunus attributes. Her eyes changing to catlike slits wasn't something she could control.

It was merely an instinctive reaction, as natural to her as breathing. It was just her body adjusting its focus to become hyper aware to stimuli. Her instincts were indiscriminant, priming themselves in the presence of friend or foe…that it was a pleasant feeling didn't matter. She wanted, needed, more of those tactile sensations. Of Ruby's scent, and her voice…and Blake's body was merely granting its own desire tenfold.

She couldn't keep her eyes closed forever, and when they broke the kiss, Blake took the chance. Her eyes opened slowly, and just as she expected, she felt Ruby tense up under that feral gaze. Distinctly inhuman, and entirely catlike.

"Ruby…sweetheart, it's just me." Blake murmured carefully, mentally cursing the depth of her voice whenever she spoke through a purr…now was not the time to be sounding as her heritage demanded. "It's okay."

"Is it?" Ruby asked, as though she wasn't completely sure as she began to avert her gaze.

"No, don't turn away." Blake said as gently as her voice allowed. "Look at me, please."

Silver eyes lifted back to hers hesitantly. It was wholly unnatural to her, Blake realized.

When a human looked into the eyes of their lover, they expected a human gaze to be reciprocated back…but her eyes….her eyes would never be such a thing, because Blake would never be human. She wanted nothing more to nuzzle away that worried frown, and kiss Ruby deeply without a second thought, but she knew that would be pushing it. That Ruby didn't run away from her was probably the best she could hope for as she reminded herself yet again, that the younger woman was still so very inexperienced when it came to her own desires.

Blake's were likely a complete mystery to Ruby, and the cat Faunus needed to rectify that.

"I promise, I would never hurt you." Blake began, about to issue the very clinical explanation of what went on with her body whenever her habitual insists took over. Just as she opened her mouth to continue, something strange happened that silenced her once more. Ruby's fingertips pressed against her lower lip, following that supple skin before cupping Blake's cheek to repeat the action with her thumb. Blake shivered involuntarily when the pad of that wayward appendage pressed onto one of her fangs as it slid on by. The motion repeated, Blake ever so carefully nipped down playfully, before releasing it and tilting her head so she could kiss the inside of Ruby's palm.

She had no idea what was so intriguing about her eye-teeth. It wasn't that they were much longer than a human's, and they were only sharper. They nestled into her jaw perfectly. The distinction in length was impossible to notice, unless of course, Blake twisted her mouth into a snarl for distinctly that reason.

She was quiet as Ruby trailed that same searching caress along her forehead, down the bridge of her nose, before slowly pulling away again. Blake was about to ask what all of that was about, but as Ruby leaned in to kiss her again, and settle into the crook of Blake's neck, the Faunus decided she just didn't care. So long as Ruby was content with whatever assurance she had happened to find, she wouldn't press it.

Though, Blake conceded to the rather filthy part of her brain, keeping her hands to herself wasn't exactly easy, either.

* * *

Weiss couldn't remember her toddlerhood very well. Either way, she highly doubted her father put up with the idea of using her hands to eat at the breakfast table…or any table for that matter. She watched Ace down her oatmeal by the fist-full before her sticky fingers reached for cut up pieces of ham scattered around on a plastic plate. Attempting yet again to spear one of the little morsels onto the children's forks in hopes that Ace might use it, she was met with hostility.

Ace snarled just as soon as Weiss got close to the plastic plate.

Blake didn't hesitate to flick Ace on the nose for the aggressive action, causing the little girl to pout, and then to cry. Blake pointedly ignored the crying as she returned to her paper. "I keep telling you, leave her plate alone. I'm almost tempted to let her have a go at you, maybe then you two will finally agree to disagree."

"I was only trying to help." Weiss replied with a sigh, shaking her head.

The cat Faunus folded the paper she was reading with an exasperated curse. It seemed a demonstration was in order. Taking her own fork, she speared one of the pancakes that Weiss had sitting on her plate, stealing it away entirely and cramming it into her own mouth.

"Hey, that was my breakfast!"

The older Faunus just smirked rudely through her chewing before gulping the pancake down. It was a bit dry for her taste, and she chased it down with a swig of her tea. "See, not very fond of that, now are you?"

"You are completely insufferable." Weiss huffed, going back to drinking her coffee disdainfully. "You know just as well as I do, that was not my intention."

"I know you were only trying to help, but you need to establish ownership with Ace first. For humans, possession is nine tenths of the law, but for Faunus, possession is everything. It's either yours, or not yours. So, thusly, during breakfast, your plate is your plate, her plate is her plate…and we don't go around touching what isn't ours."

Weiss wasn't amused, but accepted that she was at a loss when it came to dealing with the small child. "And just when do you think she will start eating with a fork…or at the very least, a spoon?" She half considered swabbing the girl down with the wet washcloth sitting near by, but feared realization again. Instead, she folded her arms and leaned back into her chair, watching as Ace devoured her meal with gusto. "We will have to teach her proper table manners eventually."

Blake shrugged, honestly, she wasn't sure when they'd have that opportunity. "So long as she's eating, does it really matter how fast she picks up table manners? It's not like we go out much, and when we do, it's normally finger food like pizza anyway…"

"Well," Weiss relented. "At least she's not wearing the bowl as a hat…"

"Oh, she still does that too…just not with her oatmeal." Blake said, mentally reminding herself that chicken noodle soup would be off the menu for a few more months until Ace stopped trying to swim in it. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something skittering up the side of the booster seat, before nestling itself into one of the knots in the little girl's hair. Several little sets of red Grimm eyes peaked out and Blake growled at the creature, plucking it from the dark tresses, and killing it.

"What was that?" Weiss asked.

"Another Grimm." Blake said, her voice concerned.

"That's it, I've had it!" Weiss said, dabbing her mouth with a napkin before slamming it down onto the table indignantly. "There are far too many Grimm in this house. I'm calling Ozpin."

* * *

Pyrrha wouldn't admit it out loud, but her feeling for Weiss had only begun to deepen.

Being in the same living space as the woman of her affections, was a difficult thing. Especially because that woman didn't seem to notice. In the workplace, she had to be professional. She couldn't risk upsetting the fragile balance that her peers had going. She was only one cog in a grand machine after all, and she knew the importance of fluid teamwork.

When the work week was done, she thought she might get a reprieve. The only thing that happened was that she found her bedroom a lonely place. She went back to her old team, the routine she become most comfortable with. It all settled back into place without any effort, but, that didn't chase away Pyrrha's concerns. Her heart had a somewhat empty feeling that she knew well.

She was completely and utterly invisible to the woman she cared about.

Pyrrha sat on her little front stoop, sipping a morning smoothie that Ren had concocted. Green eyes watching the goings on around the short cobbled path. It was made comfortable because she knew all of the residents in the area, not just team RWBY, and so they didn't pay her any mind as she watched the birds fluttering around, and the nearby cat unsuccessfully pouncing into a garbage dumpster.

If she didn't think herself completely crazy, she was sure that crow squawking on the line was much smarter than it should have been. She watched as the cat tried and failed several times to catch it, as though each attempt was doomed from the start. Then the door at the end of the alleyway opened. Ace was already bounding out of the door completely ignoring Yang's shouts to get back in the house to put shoes on.

Chuckling mildly at the early morning ruckus, Pyrrha made her way over to the front of the RWBY household. "You're up rather early today, Yang."

"The whole house is up early. Ace keeps attracting Grimm. At first it was just a few spiders, then it was a rat Grimm, though it's finally getting out of hand though." Yang sighed, watching as Ace chased the stray cat around, snarling at the little creature who scampered up the nearest drainpipe before perking her little ear back up and running back to Yang's side as if she'd just done a good deed.

"That seems very strange, I've never heard of anything like that." Pyrrha murmured, eyebrow raising with interest as she looked down to the small child, who did in fact seem to have a small army of bug Grimm coming up from the dumpsters to follow her. "Oh...well, that's unfortunate. You haven't the slightest clue why she's attracting them?"

"Nope. Just that she does, for whatever reason." Yang said, plucking another bug Grimm off of her little sister's head, her little ears flicking as Yang squashed it between her fingers. "I don't think it's that big a deal, but Ozpin wants to see it for himself. He's coming here to see her personally."

"Well, I hope he knows how to correct this." Pyrrha said, using her foot to sweep the bugs off of the porch. An angry shout issued from the back of the house before an ice blast shattered one of the windows. Pyrrha and Yang shared a look before the redhead pushed passed the powerful brawler in search of Weiss. Whatever reason she had for blasting ice out of the window, it couldn't have been good.


	20. Chapter 20

Ozpin's arrival couldn't have been more welcomed, and yet, more feared. He was a jovial man to be certain. However, lingering underneath his cool and pleasant demeanor, he was a man that commanded an absurd amount of power. When it came to keeping Remnant, Vale particularly, safe from Grimm, he did everything he could to keep the people safe. He methods were sometimes questionable, and there were moments people around him worried for his sanity.

Having him come to their humble dwelling was not what constituted a relaxing afternoon. Truth be told, it was also a little embarrassing when a team of hunters had to make a call and report a bug Grimm infestation. Students normally took such cases, though, the circumstances this time were more than a little unusual.

Ozpin was neither appalled nor surprised when he took a look at the child attracting the little vermin. In fact, he quite expected a call about something, though it wasn't exactly something like this. "Ace Branwen…" He said more to himself than to the group of huntresses surrounding him. He adjusted his glasses, and gazed to Yang. "She _is_ Raven's daughter, correct?"

Yang only nodded quietly, hands balled into fists at her side. "What of it?" She asked, though the question lacked heat.

"Yang, come on, be nice." Ruby hissed quietly. "Yes sir, I'm the one that issued the initial report about her when I found her."

"That you did." He hunched forward, peering at the child who was more than happy to hide behind Blake. "Inquisitive youth, isn't she?" He noted with a smirk. The way her own eyes studied him in return was slightly amusing. Offering his hand, Ace took a sniff, flinched, and hide further behind her protector with a tiny growl. "Not very sociable, are you, little one?"

"She doesn't like new people…or the smell of brandy." Blake said, though she knew it wasn't a very good excuse. Her nose detected just the slightest hint of it, but the smell was the same sort Qrow liked to drink. If anything, that man had made an impression that Ace wouldn't forget, and scent largely told the difference between friend and foe. "Blame her uncle for that. Qrow is a bit of an idiot…"

"So I've heard." Ozpin chuckled backing away to give the small child some space. "He claims she has quite the vicious bite, though I'll happily take his word for it."

"Smart move." Yang smirked. "Trust me."

"She is a biter." Blake said. "Faunus teeth are no match for human aura...probably not even your own."

"Likely." Ozpin agreed, steeling himself on the sofa. "I wouldn't expect less. Now then, other than Qrow, she socializes well with others?"

The team shared a glance, but it was Blake who finally spoke.

"That's hard to say." Blake answered. "She's very affectionate to people she knows…but, well, she _is_ a Faunus."

"Now, now, you don't need to worry. I'm well aware of the youthful indiscretion in youngsters." He replied gently. "I've spent more than enough time around children to understand that they aren't to be underestimated. That goes for humans too." He said, eyeing Ruby momentarily before casting aside whatever thought he had popping into his head at the time. "Though, you hit the nail on the head. Ace is a Faunus, so some things are meant to be expected. If you had to describe her preferred method of playing, it would be?"

Blake hesitated, but decided to just be as blunt as possible. "She'll play with toys occasionally, but, she's much more interesting in batting things around, hunting, stalking…"

"So, feral behavior?" He asked bluntly, this earned him several scowls.

"You wanna rephrase that?" Yang asked curtly, reminding Ozpin very much like her uncle in the way she scowled at him. It was a demand, not a request.

He didn't react, and merely tented his finger upon his lap. "That is the proper terminology, I assure you."

"He's right." Blake sighed, shaking her head at Yang. "If Raven were a Faunus, she'd be what we'd call feral. You never abandon your mates or offspring ever. It's against our social code, and more often than not, also against our primary instincts. She is young, but she does act a little bit feral."

"Hot tempered, too." Weiss added. "Although, I assume that runs in the family."

Ozpin nodded at this. "If I may?" He asked, producing a small mirror. "I'd like to see this behavior for myself."

Blake gave a huff, already knowing what he intended to do with it, and inwardly cursed. She found it offensive, but didn't say anything, it wasn't exactly her call to make. She looked over to Yang. In fact, it seemed as of the whole room regarded her with the choice, Ruby included.

"What are you all looking at me for?" Yang shrugged, sending the look directly back to Ozpin. "We called you to help us…do what you need to do."

He flashed the mirror, reflecting a little ball of light onto the floor. He wondered if Ace might go after it, but she was far less interested in playing, and much more interested in hiding behind the older Faunus. After a few moments, he gave up, and placed the mirror away. "Feral perhaps, but not rabid." He concluded slowly. "If she has a temper, I assume it's through provocation, not some sort of developmental or emotional dely."

"And that would mean, what, exactly?" Ruby asked.

"Merely that she doesn't think like a Grimm." Ozpin replied succinctly. "She's much more interested in staying on the hip. She hasn't outright attacked me, and she's not seeking something to kill. I doubt there is a cause for concern. The Branwen bloodline is a strange thing. It's not out of the realm of possibility that this is meant to happen, odd though it might seem."

"I beg your pardon?" Weiss said, affronted that anyone might even think to say such a thing. "I hate to be disrespectful, sir, but earlier this morning I had to murder a small nevermore in our bathroom." She explained, pointing to the back hallway. "Where it might have come from is anyone's guess, but either way, I find this entire debacle just a little asinine."

"I understand your concern. It wouldn't be the first time I've had people gawk at my assumptions, but allow me to explain. Qrow and Raven, in my very personal opinion, remain special cases. When they were young, they both carried semblances and abilities that seemed out of the ordinary. Qrow's tends to be relatively benign in the long run…so long as he is careful...Raven's on the other hand…well, that was a complicated matter."

"Well, that's great, but I don't have some weird Grimm attracting superpower, and I'm her older sister by blood." Yang said, plucking yet another spider Grimm away from her little sister. "This, is way too freaky…it's _not_ okay."

"Yang, you are the abnormality, not your relatives." He replied evenly.

"… _What_ …?"

He sighed at length. "I draw this conclusion because Raven's semblance was complicated. We never completely understood the extent of it." Pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose, he eyed Yang mindfully. "It frightened her. That I know for a fact. As a student, Raven was powerful. As a huntress, she was deadly. It goes without saying that your uncle is also burdened quite heavily by his own semblance."

Yang gave him a dark look. "Yeah, but uncle Qrow doesn't attract Grimm either. Are you saying my mom did?"

"No…not at all." He murmured. "I'm saying you were born and raised as relatively normal girl. You share your mother's explosive temper, and your uncle's recklessness. Your semblance is indicative of your nature. However, none of those thing stunted your growth as a person. You grew into the well-adjusted adult that your mother could never be."

"There must be something we can do to help Ace." Ruby said.

"Perhaps it would be better to say that we have no choice but to do something." Weiss said darkly. "What concerns me, is that a child is even capable of collecting Grimm in the first place."

"What I don't like is that they're coming in the house." Ruby added quickly "Grimm hate hunters."

"That's true…" Yang sighed, starting to feel overwhelmed. "You'd think these Grimm would go someplace else with such a high concentration of hunters in the area. You don't think…Ace…she's not in some kind of danger…or a risk to Vale, is she?"

"No." Ozpin only shook his head. "Of course not. While I don't find this child's propensity to attract Grimm to be particularly beneficial, I also don't think the Grimm she attracts poses a direct threat to Vale. Unfortunate realities seem befall the Branwen line. I believe that's what we're witnessing here. Furthermore, the Grimm are collecting around her, but you've never once stated that they were attacking her…or you, for that matter."

They all took pause, but it was Weiss who nodded. "It's true. We haven't been attacked, just annoyed."

The graying man nodded. "It leads me to believe they have some sort of fondness for her. We shall observe cautiously with this in mind. Take measures to rid the Grimm that collected when and where you see fit. The only advisory I would make is that you be careful. Don't release her aura. Until she is older, we must act with caution that her aura, and the use of her semblance could be dangerous. Perhaps, it might even be deadly, and then ladies, we would truly have a problem on our hands."


	21. Chapter 21

A few weeks later a loud scream surprised everyone as Ace ran fleeing from the kitchen, Weiss chasing after her to murder a small death stalker that the Faunus had befriended. Likely, it had freshly hatched out of an egg, but that didn't do anything to ease the anxiety among the members of the household. Even after it was disposed of, the looming implication was terrible enough as a threat.

The occasional wayward nevermore was one thing, and most bug Grimm were annoying yet harmless to a huntress. However scorpions, animal, Grimm, or even Faunus for that matter, were another problem entirely. The scorpion had a toxic venom, a single sting would be deadly to a small girl, and even a huntress would need medical attention before their aura gave in entirely. They couldn't risk the Grimm attacking Ace, and so after it had been thoroughly dealt with, the four women decided to take extreme measures.

There were objects used to ward away venomous Grimm, but Ace was too young to use most of them.

Several were activated and maintained by aura. Used by skilled hunters while sleeping in the wilds. Wristlets with chemicals were toxic too, and Ace was a chewer, so that was out of the question. There were medicated sprays, but those were over the counter, and often times worthless. They weren't willing to take the risk. Thus, there was only one other option, and, just as expected, Ace absolutely hated it.

To be fair, Blake hated it too, and mentally cursed herself the entire time she put the stupid thing on.

A training neckpiece infused with the aura of an already powerful hunter was their best option. Younger students wore them at combat schools to keep them safe. Due to her small size, Ace had to be fitted for one personally, and Ozpin had ordered it to be made particularly for her. That didn't stop Ace from crying however. She clawed and clawed, but it was made of metal. There would be no way for her to get it off, and though anyone could infuse the special material, Blake insisted she be the one to do it.

Blake sighed, rocking the fussing little girl to sleep.

She had mixed feelings about such tools, neck pieces particularly, due to the negative connotations inherent in such a trinket. However, even her personal worry stomped down any argument against the implement. She reminded herself that once Ace was old enough to use her own aura effectively, the thick cord of metal around her neck would no longer be needed, and a different method could be used.

"I can't believe you agreed to that contraption. I thought for sure you'd put up a fight." Weiss said, bringing Blake a glass of wine from the kitchen. Pyrrha followed behind, glass of her own wine in her hand, and she sipped it quietly as she sat down.

"It wasn't my decision to make." Blake said softly. "Yang has the final say in these sorts of matters, and she wanted it done."

"Don't give me that." Weiss said softly, a knife-like edge in her voice. "You're just as worried as the rest of us, and while I agree measures should be taken, there has got to be a better way."

"A better way, such as?" Blake asked.

"I don't know, but there has to be something." Weiss replied.

"We were lucky, Weiss, incredibly so that she wasn't stung. Otherwise we'd be in the children's ward right now fearing for her life." Blake sighed, fingers brushing against the metal. "If we can come up with something else, you know I'd be the first to jump at the opportunity. It's just that Ace doesn't have a concept of fear when it comes to Grimm, and I'm too afraid they'll be an accident if we don't do something."

"Well, there are always Grimm traps…" Pyrrha began, "but Weiss told me your hesitancy about those."

"I don't want poison in this house." Blake stated firmly.

"True, I see your concern, and Yang's, since most are chemical based, but mine aren't." Pyrrha replied. "I could very easily show you how to use them."

"No. This will have to do. She's fast, and if she got out of sight and managed to get hurt, I'd never forgive myself." Blake said as she avoided the small hands reaching for the alcoholic beverage. "Besides, I'd rather not teach Ace the concept of racial bias." Keeping it well out of reach, she used her free palm to rub soothing circles onto the small girl's back. As expected, Ace melted into the contact like a gooey little puddle. "I was raised among a group of people who viewed neck pieces as a form of capture. A symbol of oppression and little more. I was taught to hate them. She doesn't have to think that way. A lot of Faunus do, but several don't. "

Weiss didn't stop frowning. "We could have had that mental made into a wristlet…"

"And risk her taking it off? She's strong and…" Blake rolled her eyes when she was cut off with an inquisitive stare and a mew. "Yes Ace, we're talking about you." Blake sighed when Ace perked up again. "Lay down." Ace, however, wanted no part of that, so Blake growled. "Do as I say." She commanded tersely, causing red eyes to go wide as Ace curled back into Blake's side demurely. She ignored the surprised look that Pyrrha shot at her, waving it off. "As I was saying, just like yours, Weiss, my upbringing isn't something that should be entirely repeated. It would be best if those old prejudices died, so she's keeping this…contraption…as you aptly named it, on until further notice."

A small sound protruded from the slender woman as she scowled in thought. Blake had once considered the look to be one that contained unpleasant thoughts, but had come to understand that Weiss often looked that way during intense concentration. Glowering into the book pages, or gazing off into space had little to do with the woman's temperament. Instead, it had everything to do with the intensity of the woman's concentration. "Blake…we're going back to patrol the wall tomorrow. Are you going to be okay on your own?"

"I think I can handle a few Grimm."

"That's not what I mean, and you know it." Weiss said, emptying her glass. "Ruby's leaving for a quick currier mission, but she'll still be away for a few days. As much as you shoulder a great deal of burden when it comes to raising Ace, you generally have help from someone at least."

"It won't be for long, besides, I want Ruby to take that mission. She is a huntress first and foremost, and those missions help maintain the villages on the boarders. Without those supplies, morale would drop, and Grimm would attack soon after." Blake didn't bother to detail that those villages were safe havens among Faunus who feared living in the large cities. The smaller villages didn't carry the same racial burdens, choosing instead to be judgmental of outsiders as a whole, rather than the race a person hailed from. A hardworking and honest family could eventually find a home among villages. They were an important milestone in Faunus culture. It was imperative that those villages received those supplies, and that a huntress accompanied those merchants to keep them safe.

"Still, you'll call and notify us if things get out of hand around here, correct?"

"Yes Weiss." Blake said with a roll of her eye. "I will call you if sudden ineptitude gets the better of me."

* * *

Weiss never considered herself a maternal figure. She prided herself on almost everything besides her biology and her upbringing. Her body was slight, and she lacked the same voluptuous softness of her peers. She was lacking in the bust, and in the rear. She was a prickly woman as well, this she knew, and she had no desire to truly change her ways. If it wasn't for the poise and elegance beaten into her as a child, she knew she would be a completely lost cause. Her beauty was a delicate one, as though she was made of glass that would shatter in an instant.

Becoming a huntress was the solution to many of her problems, but she was almost positive she doomed herself to being a spinster. Never to marry, and never to raise a child of her own.

Seeing after Ace, was perhaps the single most baffling occurrence to ever happen.

While she didn't look the gift horse in the mouth, she also couldn't help but wonder about the direct shift that was ongoing in the household. No one could deny all four of them had embraced their newfound domesticated ways. Blake was now pursuing a romantic relationship with Ruby. Yang gave up her questionable partying and drunk antics. Lastly, but perhaps most interestingly, Weiss could not deny her own personal investment in the youngest member of the household.

She had attempted to brush the entire matter off plenty of times, but she wouldn't be headed back to her station along the wall if she didn't feel some sort of responsibility. "We might as well get going. If we wait for Yang, we're all going to be late." Weiss groused only loud enough for Pyrrha to hear. "If we go now, I can cover her shift."

"She does seem to be having trouble saying goodbye, doesn't she?" Pyrrha noted sadly.

"It's not that I don't understand why." Weiss began slowly as she turned and began the long walk back to the perimeter wall. "Yang's never been one for restraint. Practically crushing relatives in bear hugs and drowning them in tears is par for the course. I just wish she would be more mindful of her other duties. She's far too easily distracted."

"It must be difficult." Pyrrha noted.

"Of course it is." Weiss said before biting the inside of her cheek. The emerald eyes focused on her were entirely too sincere, looking for more truths than they ought to. It was not a comfort, and with an indicant breath, she gave Pyrrha a sideway glance. "What I mean to say is that they're sisters. It wouldn't make sense to do any of this if it were easy on Yang. I think I would lose all respect for her if she could just turn her back on a little girl."

"It suits you."

"I'm afraid you'll have to be more clear."

"looking after the wellbeing of another. It suits you, Weiss. just as much as it suits Yang." Pyrrha said offhandedly as they walked back to the base together. "I know it may not seem like it, but, I think you give yourself too little credit. I can tell how reluctant you are to leave."

Weiss only huffed, brushing the matter side. "You would be reluctant too, if you knew you'd come home to a swarm of little Grimm skittering out from every nook and cranny."

"Is that truly the only reason?"

"I beg your pardon?"

Pyrrha sighed. "Our teams are the nearest thing to what might be considered a warm and happy family. I sometimes fear it will be the only solace we will ever come to know. That being said, it would only be natural to be reluctant to leave such a comfort, wouldn't it?"

Weiss chose not to answer that. "You still talk to your relatives, don't you? At the very least they contact you. I've been stationed in the mail room before, I've seen the letters in your box."

"I keep regular contact." Pyrrha said, but the statement lacked enthusiasm. "I have no doubt in my mind that my family loves me, and that they did their absolute best to provide for me…however, I would never be able to call my mother or father particularly warm people...oh, but it's not that they're unkind at all. It's merely that they don't display emotion very well. Freedom of expression was always a secondary concern...I'm sure you understand."

"That's merely the way things are for people in our position." Weiss answered distantly. "If it's any consolation, I believe you to be plenty expressive."

"Oh, I wish that were true." Pyrrha lamented cryptically. "You are far more expressive than I shall ever be. I envy that in you, really, I do. You've always be able to say everything you've wanted to, and you stick by that spoken word avidly. If I could have even a fraction of that confidence, I'd be an entirely different woman."

"You give me far too much credit." Weiss told her, squaring her shoulders, and adjusting the bag slung across her back. "When in regards to my family, my father particularly, push came to shove, and I shoved back. That's all there is to it."


	22. Chapter 22

Ruby spent three long days on the road before she was able to return home with visions of a hot shower and a soft bed dancing in her mind. What she didn't expect was an ambush as soon as she hit the door. One small little blur pounced first, blocking her line of sight, and forcing her to take a step backward in surprise. A much faster, and larger mass followed a breath after, bowling all three of them over, and along the front stoop.

Ruby blinked up at her captors, small Faunus claws already latching into the fabric of her cloak with a happy purr while a set of golden eyes reflected in the dark night, peering into Ruby's own silver orbs. Together, both Faunus seemed entirely too pleased with themselves. "I missed you too." Ruby croaked out, her aura flaring around her to soothe her back.

A soft and sweet kiss was Blake's only response as she scooped Ruby up, and carrying her inside the house, Ace still clinging into the cloak fabric, and nuzzling into Ruby's chest. "You're late." Blake noted as she took Ruby into the bedroom. "I fully expected you to be home this morning."

"Trust me, I wanted to be home the day before. You know how it goes on foot." Ruby said, allowing herself to be deposited on their shared bed.

"I do." Blake conceded. "I just don't think it was due to being on foot. Your semblance takes care of that."

Ruby winced when Blake pried the young cat Faunus from her clothes and deposited the young girl into a makeshift crib. Several pieces of wood has been hammered into the sides and secured by the bed posts. It was a sad display, especially since Ace could climb out of it without a second thought. Her little ears perked up before the sound of her nails clawing into the wood made Ruby laugh as Ace popped up from behind the barrier.

"So?" Blake asked, as she pulled Ace off of the wooden slats, and tucked her back in. "What kept you Ruby, really?"

"There were some problems with the cargo, but it was nothing we couldn't sort out."

Blake nodded, looking back over her shoulder one more time to make sure Ace stayed put. Then she stalked back across the room, pulling Ruby into another hug, and kissing the nape of her neck.

"Oh, Blakey don't do that, I probably taste like the forest, and who knows what else."

"Is that supposed to be a turnoff?" Blake asked, her lips still pressed to the nape of Ruby's neck.

"Well, I just don't think it's a turn on…" Ruby retorted, quite unsure what to make of the affections she was being given. She had fully expected to be marched in to the nearest shower the moment she hit the door. "I mean, it's not, right?"

Blake chuckled lightly at the question.

The woman smelled of the dense pine found in the forests, mixed with the sweetness of maple. It was as though she had been resting up against one of the trunks just the night before. Mixed with it, of course, were the less desirable fragrances of Grimm, old sweat, and oil. A tinge of something metallic, such as blood told Blake that Ruby had sustained minor injuries that had since healed. She pulled away then, taking the time to unlace the muddied boots that she hadn't wanted tracking prints through the house, steeling her nose against the terrible odor that she knew would be there, trapped in the confines of the leather and steel.

"A turn on, no. A comfort, yes." Blake supplied after a moment, as her fingers worked the laces of the other boot. "Call me a worrier all you want, but I don't like not being with you."

"You know I always take currier missions alone. It's not that big a deal."

"I don't have to like it." Blake said, rising from her knelt position. "I smell old blood on your clothes, Ruby. I know it's yours. Harmless little scratches or not, I'm entitled to my worry. I'm also within my rights to insure you're not hiding any injuries from me."

"It's nothing my aura didn't mend." Ruby said with a shake of her head, lifting part of her shirt to keep Blake from searching further. "See? This was where the cuts were. It's not even from a Grimm, it's just a few scratches I got from one of the shipment boxes. there were weapons inside, but one of the grenades went off and blew the top off of the weapon's crate. Some shrapnel got me when I was covering one of the merchants."

Blake sighed softly, a mix of exasperation and amusement forcing the hot breath from her lips as she leaned in to Kiss Ruby once more. "Go wash up and get into something comfortable, and I'll make you something sweet to eat. Sound good to you?"

"Yeah, you know, it really does." Ruby nodded, not above the bribery of the matter, and smirking to herself as she considered just how curious Blake could be in her own subtle ways. It was good to be home again.

* * *

"You really should just say _something_."

"Yang, you know I can't."

"Can't or won't?"

"Would you stop living vicariously? If you're so interested in romantic overtures, perhaps you should find someone for yourself."

Yang shook her head, toying with the straw in her fruity drink. There wasn't any liquor in the bright concoction, but that didn't stop Yang from demanding an umbrella from the kitchen staff anyway. She looked across the field. Weiss was currently engaged in battle drills with Coco, the two of them seemingly trying to obliterate the entire training field in a glorious combination of bullets and dust. It was an impressive display, and the fact that neither woman held back made for a brutal fight.

"Pyr, not that I'm a total pervert, but Weiss has a really nice ass. Small, perky, nice and tight…you've seen you in her underwear, tell me she's not hot."

"We've been over this."

"You're so lucky I make it a policy not to hit on people my friends have crushes on. Well, that and because I know better than to hit on Weiss. We'd last a week tops, and then kill each other." She turned to Pyrrha then. "That said, if you ask her out, she'd totally say yes."

"I doubt that."

"Pyr…"

"I'm alright Yang, truly. I'm thankful for your concern, but honestly, I'm perfectly fine with the way things are."

"Which is why you keep sighing every time you look at her." Yang pointed out. Completely ignoring the borderline murderous look her friend was giving her, Yang's voice softened. "You're like a love sick puppy. Thing is, Weiss isn't like Jaune. She's spent her entire like learning how to read people and outsmart them." Yang's voice become softer still. "She knows, Pyr…she has to."

"She hasn't said a word to indicate such a thing." Pyrrha protested. "I'm sure that if she had even the slightest inkling, she would have confronted me."

"Nah." Yang laughed, wincing when Weiss made contact with Coco's boot, flying backwards into a dirt pile. Weiss gained her bearings before launching herself back into combat with a series of glyphs. "If living with Weiss has taught me one thing, it's that she'll bitch and moan about stuff that doesn't really matter. When it comes to the things that do, she's pretty timid."

"Truly?"

"Yep." Yang nodded, popping the end of the word between her lips. "She probably doesn't know how to deal with the idea that people genuinely like her. Aside from her older sister, Winter, she comes from a family of total assholes. Riddle me this, did your parents ever backhand you for no good reason?"

"What?!" Pyrrha shook her head, appalled by the mere thought of it. Her parents were strict, but they never once raised a hand to her maliciously. Training with her father was an entirely different matter, but even that was done with care and consideration. It was never an act of cruelty. "No! Never, of course not. Why on earth would they do something like that?"

"Hell if I know. According to my uncle, her dad's a total dickhead." Yang said with a shrug. "She doesn't talk about it, but she cries in her sleep sometimes. Between you and me, she needs someone in her life to show her a little bit of love. Having a team is great and all, and we'll always be like a family, but if you think you can give her more than that, Pyr, then you really should. Weiss deserves it, and frankly, so do you."


	23. Chapter 23

In her humble opinion, Weiss was the most beautiful person on the face of the planet, and Pyrrha truly believed that. It wasn't just her body, intellect, or skill, though all of those things stood on their own merits. It was something else entirely that was attractive in Weiss. It was her own independence, her drive, her focus. Weiss needed others by choice, not because she couldn't take care of herself. She was empowered by those around her, but could manage on her own if she absolutely had to.

In fact, she had been alone for a long time, being entirely self-reliant at least emotionally for far too long.

She didn't _need_ anybody, but she wanted to need others, and have those people need her in return. Being in a relationship with her, loving her, would prove difficult for vastly different reasons than caring for Jaune had, and Pyrrha knew this. Hesitated because of it…and then there was Ace to consider. Weiss refused to identify as a parent, but, in some manner of speaking, that was exactly what she was.

Weiss had a hand in raising the young girl, and Ace adored Weiss in her own way.

Furthermore, for as little as Yang thought of the matter, there was no telling what Ruby or Blake might think. Honestly, it worried Pyrrha. Would they think she was trying to be an imposition? Pyrrha had never asked, and had no way of knowing. She feared that even Weiss would turn her down based purely on her responsibilities to the household. Weiss was a major breadwinner after all. One thing was for sure, if Weiss did accept her feelings and return them equally, Pyrrha knew her own role in Ace's life, in team RWBY's life, would reflect that.

It was one thing to be a beloved friend, and welcome babysitter, and another to be seen as part of the family…

Family…it was a loaded word for Weiss…for all of team RWBY.

With all of those things in the front of her mind, it was with a murmured observation that finally outed her feelings. "I am quite taken with you." It was so soft, she prayed that Weiss didn't actually hear it. Truth be told, she hadn't actually meant to speak the runaway thought aloud.

But Weiss had heard something, and regarded Pyrrha levelly, almost as if confused.

There was no pretending now. "I…I said that I am quite taken with you." Pyrrha said, forcing her courage to stand its ground, glancing over to Weiss and finding her critical stare to be far too much to take.

"Impossible." Weiss replied. "Not to mention, it's not humorous in the least."

"It's no joke." Pyrrha said. "Loathe though I am to admit that for obvious reasons, I am deeply interested in you Weiss...romantically speaking. Forgive me, even thinking that way isn't appropriate."

Weiss sighed softly, hand falling over Pyrrha's own. "I must admit, I had my suspicions. I'm more shocked that you both confirmed and debunked them."

"Yang was correct then, when she said that you were already aware." Pyrrha bit the inside of her cheek, wanting no more than to put space between them, and knowing that doing so would easily offend the white haired woman. Though Pyrrha would have happily melted into oblivion, she would never do anything to upset Weiss. Pulling away would have done strictly that. The feeling of that dainty hand over her own felt like enough to trap her there forever.

There was very little irony in this moment. No balm to heal away the truth Pyrrha worked so hard to hide. Side by side she stood with someone who held the exposed and beating heart of her heart. She was rumored to be invincible, but this was all the more proof that Pyrrha was anything of the sort. She waited for that painful grip of rejection, her breathing shallow.

The silence dragged on for far too long before Weiss broke it. "I wasn't aware that I was the cause." She said uneasily. "When you take an interest in someone, rare as it is, your demeanor changes. You become distant in some ways, despondent. In other ways, you gentle yourself. Those things, they're obvious." Weiss nodded more to herself than to Pyrrha before looking down at their joined hands. She tightened her grip only slightly. "So, in answer to your question, I knew there was someone. Mistakenly, I assumed your affections were aimed towards a male. Perhaps one of the guards, or, one of our new bunkmates...that seemed plausible."

"It has only been you." Pyrrha murmured. "I don't even know when I began to notice such feelings towards you, but, when I became positive that they would not change, I knew I would have to say something. I just didn't think it would be through a slip of the tongue such as this, and for that, I sincerely am sorry. It was foolish to think that you would reciprocate my feelings."

"Don't misunderstand." Weiss said, her voice fast as a whip, and crashing through the air in the same abrupt way. Weiss tightened her grip on Pyrrha's hand further still, a layer of warm clamminess building between them. Ever so slowly, she pulled away and sighed softly into the setting sun. "There is no possible way that you could have feelings for me, Pyrrha."

"Then the impossible had become possible."

Weiss let go a bitter laugh. "I have done nothing to win over your affections. It was never my intention to ever put myself in such a position. Doing so with anyone would mean accepting that I'm even capable of such emotions in the first place…"

Pyrrha didn't dare hope. "But, you are capable?" She couldn't allow even a glimmer of such a thing to blind her. "You are...aren't you?"

Weiss closed in on herself. "You don't understand." Her arms wrapped around her body, as a self-imposed shield. "I came to a conclusion long ago. One that very few would ever agree with, but that I've found to be factual."

"Weiss?" Hope would only bring more pain. Yet it settled there in her chest anyway. "I want to understand. I _need_ to."

The shorter woman swallowed hard. "It's disgusting to deny yourself. To do so for so long that it wholeheartedly becomes part of the malignancy that drives you…but when denial is all that you know, when failure to live up to even your own expectations becomes the reality you face every day…there is no escape from that. People say that it can be overcome, however I have not found a way. I would like to, but I haven't…how could I possibly have anything to offer?"

Pyrrha's jaw worked back and forth, as if to speak, but no words were able to come out as her chest constricted tighter. The pain of rejection was so easy to cast aside when Weiss looked as if she were suffering from some unimaginable ache that had lingered for years, buried so deeply that no one was to know about it…but, that wasn't true either. Yang obviously had known, had spoken of it so much, that Pyrrha mentally berated her own blindness.

She narrowed her eyes, frowning, wondering where on the face of Remnant Weiss had learned to hate herself so greatly. It wasn't low self-esteem. This was different. Sinister. To Weiss, it was steadfast fact, one that could not, and would never be changed. Pyrrha already had a good idea of who to blame for this, and internally, she was wishing the man damnation for it.

Outwardly, her green eyes softened. "You truly have no concept of how wonderful a person you are, do you?"

"I have done irredeemable things, Pyrrha…things that if you knew, you would greatly rethink the way you see me. The very blood that runs through my body isn't noble. The things my family have done are unforgiveable, and even my elder sister is not without fault. I can't even fathom the extent of the atrocities that continue because of my family, and I can't do anything to stop them, not truly." She grit her teeth, a show of rage that was aimed entirely inward. Completely at herself. "As if all of that wasn't complicated enough to deal with, I have to look at myself in the mirror every day, and know that I will never be the person I want to be. The person I wanted to be was never _this_ , and then to be a lesbian on top of all of it…"

Pyrrha did the only thing she could think of to do. She put her arms around Weiss as securely as possible. "I would not think differently."

"Don't do this to me..."

"I already have." And having Weiss in her arms was heavenly in spite of everything. "I'm sorry, Weiss, truly I am. However, I cannot accept those things as a proper rejection. I cannot give up so easily, especially when you have not turned me away. You have not denied me, all you seem to be doing is denying yourself…and I cannot let you do that."

"There is no possible way you could want this." Weiss argued weakly.

"Yes, I do." There was no hesitation in her voice. It was soft, but full of resolve and steel. "I want this more than you could ever even fathom. I know that you _are_ capable of returning my feelings. So long as I am sure of that, I have nothing to fear."

"I can't. I'm a monster, born and raised. Don't you understand? You're going to get hurt…"

"Then let me get hurt!" Pyrrha demanded, pulling away only far enough to cup those porcelain cheeks in her hands, her thumbs pushing away the waterfall that started to form in those crystal blue eyes. "Let me see the real you, and if that hurts me, so be it. Let me decide if you're worth the pain you think you'll cause." For as delicate as Weiss looked, Pyrrha felt like she was trying to break down a fortress, the likes of which she had never encountered before. "Weiss, please, just let me love you."

Weiss closed her eyes as she shook uncontrollably. Nodding her head was the only answer she could manage before Pyrrha gave her another tight hug that Weiss melted into. Her tears were still freely flowing in silence. Her breath was uneven, though her sobs were soundless. A purging of so many things she'd bottled up for years dripping out of her like poison as she wrapped her arms around Pyrrha in return.

How could one woman smash down her defenses so easily? Why did Pyrrha even want to? Love was a fallacy. A lie people told to get what they wanted. It wasn't real, it couldn't be real…but, in that moment, Weiss truly wished it was.

* * *

 **AYangThang:** Firstly I want to thank those who are still taking the time to read this fiction...it grows longer by the day, and in both good and bad ways, and several plot arcs are incoming.

Anyway, this is the start of a relationship that paves the way for future arcs. It took me a long time to finally decide on how best to deal with the relationship these two share. The only thing I knew for sure at the onset of this story was that I wanted Ruby and Blake's relationship to explore a more domestic lifestyle that a committed huntress couple might expect...but with Weiss and Pyrrha, I decided on a different path...one I hope you'll enjoy, even if it is a very, very slow burn.


	24. Chapter 24

All was not harmonious back at home. Trouble was brewing in the form of one very small, yet very mischievous bundle of energy.

Ruby sighed, seeing the dirty footprints along the floor, and in some small way they reminded her of paw prints not unlike the one her family dog used to leave behind after a storm left the ground too muddy. These were not ones made from mud, but rather from soot. They began from the fireplace before trailing into the kitchen. They rounded the table several times before leading back out and under the sofa. Then from the sofa to the coffee table, several times back and forth. Finally, they trailed to the bedroom where the child was covered in black ash that scattered around her as she shook her head wildly from side to side.

A now equally dirty Blake held the little girl by her overalls as the small child batted at the air playfully, none the wiser about the complete mess she had made of herself, caregiver, and the house.

"She pried the door open again, didn't she?" Blake deadpanned.

"You don't want to see what she did to the drapes, either." Ruby said, leaning on the door frame. "Weiss is going to freak out when she sees what happened to them."

"The same thing Ace did to her socks, I assume…" The once white material had two gaping holes in them as if they had been shredded, little toes sticking out. It was anyone's guess if she had clawed or chewed through them, only that it was the countless pair this week. Her shoes had suffered similar fate only a few days before, and it was a small wonder Ace hadn't shredded the rest of the clothing on her body. "My question is, what were you doing when all of this happened?"

"Dispatching another nest of death stalkers that were making a home at the bottom of the kitchen cupboard. I ended up having to re-arrange the whole thing." Ruby just shrugged then, using her thumb to clear away the smudges Ace had given Blake's cheek. "I thought the house was too quiet for its own good…I'll go clean everything up, though it may take a while."

Blake rolled her eyes, trying her best to clean Ace with a few wet-wipes, before setting the little girl back down and sighing as she scampered after one of her stuffed toys on the floor. "You know, they have playpens that close off at the top for problem climbers."

"What kind of playpen is that?" Ruby asked, surprised.

"Well, there are all kinds. Most are padded with foam on the bottom and sides. Some have dents and ledges to climb up and hide in. Sun probably had one as a baby so he didn't hang upside down and break his neck." Blake said thoughtfully. "The only issue is, I think our ceilings are too low for conventional measurements."

Ruby watched Ace play as though she didn't have a care in the world. What Blake spoke of sounded more like a cage than anything, and Ruby wasn't quite sure how to navigate such a delicate conversation. "I don't want to sound weird, but I'd think anything with the word 'pen' in it would be a negative thing for a Faunus."

"It's a measure of safety." Blake responded easily. "Though, you're right, it's also a matter of contention, just like with everything else. Some Faunus do refuse to use them. I think it comes down to the situation. If she's climbing the drapes, soon it'll be the walls, then it'll be hiding places up high too, and not just under the furniture. A playpen can give her those spaces so she's not inventing them…for example, in the fireplace."

"Why does she even go in there? All she does is get dirty and sneeze everywhere."

"Probably to look for Yang." Blake said. "You both come home smelling like fire from time to time…she probably finds it comforting."

"Well, I have some sweeping to do if I don't want this whole house to smell like ash." Ruby said with a shake of her head. "Can you keep her in here with you? I still need to check the living areas for Grimm."

"The house isn't the only thing that needs a proper cleaning." Blake said.

Ruby simply grinned. "The yowling will be real. I pray for your hearing…and I'll have your tea ready for you."

"Thanks Ruby." Blake sighed as she went to go run the bath water. "I'm going to need it."

* * *

"Hey, Velvet, can I ask you a question?" Yang asked in passing while she was watching the cameras with a bored expression on her face.

She liked being outside, but visibility was low, and the rain made the usual scouting trips impossible. Weiss had her glyphs to keep above the slick and muddy ground, and Fox didn't mind the terrible conditions. He used his semblance to map out the area around him meaning loud sounds like rolling thunder, and the horrible visibility didn't hamper him in the slightest…what did get in his way was the terrain, and he went sliding in the mud on more than one occasion due to his horrible footing.

Due to all of the rain, the Grimm were out in force. Those who weren't able to hunt in the weather were busy fortifying Vale's defenses both against Grimm, and the flooding that was sure to be happening along the rivers and costliness.

"You can ask me whatever you would like, although, I may not have an answer." Velvet said, wearing her specialized earplugs. She could still hear in her human ears just fine, but her faunus ears needed to be protected, least her all too sensitive hearing be compromised.

"What was it like as a kid? Can't imagine growing up with rabbit ears. Can't hide them like Blake, can't be seen as an equal because some people are assholes." Yang asked mildly, softening the intensive question by way of her normal jovial demeanor and caring personality. "How'd you deal with that?"

"To humans, a Faunus is a Faunus. What traits we have don't matter. We are what we are, and humans hate that." Velvet dismissed.

"Yeah, but you had a normal life, right?" Yang had to hope. "Like with parents, and school, siblings, all of that?"

"In a manner of speaking." Velvet carefully checked her own set of monitors, finding them clear of Grimm. "What is this about, Yang?"

"Well, I can't ask Blake, she didn't have the same kind of upbringing I did. She wasn't a normal kid like the Faunus I grew up with on Patch." Yang said with a shrug as she watched Pyrrha meet up with a few of Vale's emergency teams to lead the fortification efforts. Even Glynda Goodwitch could be seen on the local news station upheaving impossibly large chunks of rock, to settle them in key locations around the perimeter.

"I'm well aware of Blake's upbringing. Her family are part of Faunus culture, part of our history." Velvet wondered just how much Yang knew, knowing it was likely very little. Still, it wasn't her story to tell. "You're right though, she wasn't a normal child, she didn't have the luxury to be. So, what is it you would like to know?"

"Just…you know, what it was like?"

Velvet pressed her lips together. That was a loaded question at best. "Well, first off, I should probably preface this by saying that any Faunus hunter will probably be far from normal...our lifestyle, as huntresses demand a different way of thinking."

"Yeah, I guess I can see that." Yang agreed. "It's just you weren't always a huntress...you had to come from somewhere...had to have a history. We all do."

At that, Velvet let out a small huff. Human curiosity always confused her. "My parents are both rabbit Faunus such as myself. It's common to seek mates with like-minds and species. It's not written in stone, but it is more common than say…a rabbit and cat Faunus, to use an example. It's even less common for a Faunus to be with a human…though in some circles, like hunters, it's more common than the general public."

At that Yang let our a small laugh. "Sounds complicated."

"I don't think it is." Velvet said. "You said you grew up in Patch. Like most islands and outer villages, racism isn't as rampant. Well, just like human settlements, Faunus have Menagerie. A territory all our own, so Faunus who grow up there aren't discriminated against. Well, at least, not for being Faunus. Things like being gay, that's not nearly as well received by Faunus. Our urge to mate and rear offspring can make for more than a little confusion the moment a Faunus claims homosexuality…it's not widely understood yet."

Yang raised an eyebrow, thinking the concept completely stupid, but wisely didn't comment.

She had been Blake's partner long enough to know that the divide between humans and Faunus wasn't just because of oppression. Though that was the largest and arguably most detrimental part of it. Blake and Velvet were educated people, inspired, and among what Yang would consider an enlightened few. However, Yang had met more Faunus because of conflict than because of peace. When it came to the large cities like Vale, the discrimination on both sides was palatable.

As such, she had determined part of the divide was because neither side could fully accept the other.

There simply weren't these kind of problems on Patch, and though the island population was few in number, it wasn't racially divided to such an extreme. Growing up, one of her best friends had been a Faunus, and no one had questioned it…no one probably even batted an eye at all.

"So, putting aside the gay thing…you didn't live in Vale then, did you?" Yang asked. "You were an island baby?"

Velvet nodded. "I was born in Vale. I'm in the middle of my siblings, of which I have many. We moved to an outer village when I was very young…and later, we made the voyage Menagerie once it was founded. The memories from being little are foggy, as far back as I can easily recall, Menagerie was my home. I came back to Vale only to attend Beacon. Up until then, the upbringing I had was probably more like yours…I'm sorry, I'm sure that's not very helpful."

"Actually, it's a lot more helpful than you think…knowing that everything's not always a big deal all the time." Yang shrugged as she turned back to watch the screens. "Blake is very focused on Faunus rights, and she should be, don't get me wrong. It's just that I'm only a human. I'm always going to be a human. There are some things I will never be able to completely understand, and that kind of freaks me out since I have a baby sister who is a Faunus…I want what's best for her, you know? I don't want her to have to suffer like all that crap I see in the news…"

"I think I understand." Velvet said slowly. "I won't say that your baby sister won't face discrimination, because she will…and I won't say that she will never be picked on, because she will. She'll be fine, so long as she's around a good group of people. I think that's the hardest thing for anyone, finding where you belong. If she can find a place among her peers like I did, then any and all harassment she runs into won't matter as much."

"Yeah, but, it's finding those people that I'm worried about." Yang sighed. "What if she doesn't?"

"You have to believe she will." Velvet responded.

* * *

She had just cleaned the entire house, making it spotless in a way that would have even made Weiss happy.

All of the hard work had been dashed to bits in a matter of moments. Her mouth went dry, her a ball of unpleasant emotion balling up in her chest as she grit her teeth. She tried to speak, but her jaw worked silently. Ruby remembered exactly why her father and her uncle used to get into explosive arguments...it was times like these that the shouting matches would become the lullaby she fell asleep to.

In fact, Ruby was beside herself as she took sight of her living room, she had never seen such a mess in her life. Well, not one that had given her such a reason for panic. Black feathers covered the floor, and her uncle, finally in his human form, sprawled out looking dazed. Blood seeped from his arm, and although he chuckled, she knew from the tone of his voice, it was anything but pleasant...the worst thing though, the part that had her heart sinking into her chest, was the crimson that lingered on Ace's lips...

The young Faunus was spluttering unpleasantly, spitting feathers as she wildly shook her head from side to side, small hisses indicating her complete and total displeasure.

When her brain started to finally form words, it was in the form of a booming shout that bounced harshly off the walls as she chastised her uncle. "WHAT IN THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!?"

The sound sent Ace fleeing in terror, and Blake to come rampaging out of the bedroom with her weapon in hand, only to skid to a stop when she took sight of who caused the ruckus. "Do I even want to know what the fuck just happened?" She snarled lowly, trying to decide if Qrow was being a threat, or just an idiot.

"He's drunk…" Ruby accused hotly. "And did something really, really stupid." Finally collecting herself, she forced out a murmured curse. She was calmer, although her tone was still so agitated that it sent rather unpleasant tingles down Blake's spine. The cat Faunus put her weapon away, as she watched Ruby slowly piece herself back together. "Uncle Qrow, you can't just do things like that, you should-"

Ruby's rant continued. It was a blur to Blake. The Faunus kept her ears pressed flat against her head. She hated that tone of voice. She couldn't place why, but the feeling was enough to make the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. A small half growl, half whine tried to break out from the depths of her throat and chest, as though to placate Ruby's obvious ire…and that was when Blake realized why it troubled her so.

Ruby was not one to find anger so readily available, and never while reeking of fear along with it, as though she had witness a momentary terror her mind was struggling to process. It was bothersome to the senses, and to a Faunus, that meant it was irksome to the very core of her being. Blake swore she could almost taste Ruby's scent in the air. The normally soft and sweet odors were pungent, raw…

"So, I'll ask you again, have you lost your ever-loving mind?" Ruby asked as she finished her tirade, her ire still palatable.

"For the record, you and Yang used to love when I changed into a little birdie when you were her age…" He man just smirked at them like an idiot. "Didn't think she'd try to eat me."

"Ace tried to eat him?" Blake asked, genuinely surprised. Her voice cracked under the question, as though she was struggling not to let a confused mewl slip between the question.

Ruby grit her teeth at her uncle, and sighed. Calming down significantly. "I think she was only going to play with him, but she did have his arm in her mouth…well, his wing. He was in bird form, landed on the chair, and didn't change back before Ace nabbed him." Ruby continued as she helped to pick him up off the floor. "Nothing like having your uncle in your little sister's mouth to give you a heart attack."

"Well forgive me for thinking I might be exempt from the food chain." He groused. "Maybe flying in here all bird-like wasn't the best idea to ever be had, but order are orders."

"And then you wonder why she tries to maul you to death…" Blake sighed, not having any sympathy for his completely battered arm. It was already half-way done healing anyway. "For future reference, if you ever do that again, I'll rip your arm off myself and beat you with it." Then she turned to Ruby. "I'm going to go get Ace out from whatever bed she's cowering under…"

Qrow could only groan. "Never doing that shit again, trust me." He flinched at the soreness in his wrist, feeling his aura heal that away too. "It was Ozpin's idea, not mine."

Ruby's eyes narrowed. "Ozpin's idea to what, exactly?"

The black haired man rolled his in return. "To come by and check up on the little hellion…really is like her mom, you know that? All full of piss n' vinegar. Kind of cute, reminds me of old times."

"Right now, I'm trying to decide if she isn't more like you when you get bored around Winter…look at this…you guys made a huge mess. It's bad enough she makes them all the time, but then you go along and help her." Ruby said as she took his flask away from him and sat down. "Was flying through the open kitchen window and flapping around the house like a crazy person really your idea of checking up?"

"Well, I had to get my excitement somewhere." He shrugged, making himself comfortable. "I kind of made a mess, didn't I?"

"Yep." Ruby said, popping then end of the word dryly. "And you are cleaning it up…like right now, before Blake comes back."

"Well shit, thought you'd say that." He said. "Suppose I don't get my flask back until I do?"

"If you're lucky." Ruby deadpanned. "Do you remember where the dust pan and broom are?"

At this, he barked a laugh. "Unfortunately, yeah, I do…"

Ruby scrubbed at her face, and swallowed back the last trickles of shock. Her shoulders sagged completely under the weight of momentary peacefulness as she picked herself back up and stopped in the kitchen, pulling out a package of tuna steaks for dinner...not only did her uncle hate fish in general, but she hoped the small gesture would soothe the women in her life. Guiltily, she went to work, trying to push the entire fiasco out of her mind.


	25. Chapter 25

"Sight for sore eyes, that…" Qrow said more to himself than Ruby while he leaned on the doorway between the living area and the kitchen. "Reminds me of better days."

"What do you mean?" Ruby asked, peaking around to see just what he was looking at. The apron she wore was entirely too long for her since it belonged to Blake but she didn't seem to mind as she dusted her hands off, and taking in the sight in front of her.

Sitting happily in front of the television was Ace. Blake hunched over the small child with a brush in her hand, muttering curses under her breath at the unruly and wild strands of hair. A children's program flickered across the screen, the only thing rooting Ace to her spot. Occasionally she'd growl or whine when she felt the bristles touch her scalp, but Blake handled each knot with care, conditioning and schooling the frizz…which was why the entire ordeal had gone on for over an hour already.

Qrow chuckled distantly. "Just memories. They creep up on me when I don't expect them."

"At least they're good though, right?" Ruby asked.

"Nether good or bad, really." He said. "Funny thing about drinking, it dumbs everything. It gets me by, but, that's the down side."

"Can you at least tell me what you were thinking about?"

"It's just a feeling I get." He nodded back over to the sight. "Summer used to do that with Yang. Now that I think about it, Yang always loved to be around Summer. Listened to her better than anyone else." Qrow glanced over at Ruby then. "Tai and I, we couldn't tell Raven shit and expect her to take it to heart. Summer had a way with her though…a way with all of us, really. That's what I was thinking about."

"Oh..." Ruby pulled away from the doorway. "I suppose that makes sense."

"Your mom was a strong minded woman, and could shut any of us up with a glance." At this he shrugged, a soft laugh falling from his lips. "Summer ruled the roost, there was no question, and Yang noticed that I think."

Ruby smirked, but it didn't reach her eyes. "I'm going to go check the grill." She said, walking out of the kitchen and onto the small patio in the back where the grill sat. She lifted the lid, and watched the charcoal at work. It was hot enough for the tuna steaks, she decided, and began to place them as her uncle followed her out. "How long are you going to stay around this time?" She asked, no heat to her words, only curiosity.

"And that's what it comes down to, huh kiddo?" He asked somewhat bitterly. "Not that I don't get it, but, you know the profession just as well as I do."

"You're right. I am a huntress, so I know when you're lying now." Ruby told him as she turned to look at him. "I know the difference between you being three sheets to the wind after a long dry spell, and you just being drunk for the sake of it."

"Okay, I'll level with you. I've got some things to look into, and Ace might be part of it." He sighed as he eyed his empty flask. "Other part though just might be that I'm trying to be a good uncle. Don't tell that to Oz, though, he'll never let me live it down."

"You really should sober up." Ruby said offhandedly. "And think before you act..."

"Thinking, yeah sure. I thought about it plenty before I did it...and as for sobriety?" Qrow had considered it several times, all of them he had come to the same conclusion. One that he wasn't proud of, but it was his all the same. "I would clean up if it was worth it…it just isn't."

"Not even for the people who care about you?" She asked.

"It's more complicated, Ruby. I've got a problem. I'll own up to that, but it's my demon, not yours. If I would have benefit from quitting, I would have done it a long time ago. Trust me on that."

For a long time, Ruby said nothing, just flipping the steaks, and glaring daggers into the grill marks. "Maybe, or maybe not." Ruby finally murmured. "I hope we will never have to know."

* * *

Standing on guard gave them one thing, time.

Plenty of it.

Hours at a time they kept watch. They needed a way to keep focus, a way to chip away at the feeling of boredom, and conversation had been their way to do that.

Ever since the day Pyrrha had spoken of her feelings, an awkwardness wove itself between them. Idle conversation didn't seem quite so idle anymore. Weiss had always been very careful about what she disclosed to her friends. She had always been meticulous in how exactly she went about doing that. Mistakenly, she had thought Pyrrha was the same.

Although Weiss considered herself to be rather open around her friends, there were some things she just didn't talk about. Silence was safer than spoken word.

How could she possibly detail over two decades of conclusions that had jaded her? How could she justify her own stringent moral failings? Ill-begotten as they were, they were still her crosses to bear, and she protected those personal hells very carefully. It was just a matter of speaking her mind, and she knew that…but her mind was a poisonous place to be.

She had done damage before unthinkingly, unintentionally, simply by speaking her views.

If she were to explain herself to Pyrrha, she would have to speak using the very foundation of her upbringing as a crutch. A cornerstone to which all of her other conclusions were built upon. Some of those assumptions had been smashed into tiny bits, and buried deep inside along with whatever admiration she had left of her family…and that alone was a dark place to think, mentally.

Yet, Pyrrha wanted to know, and Weiss found it quite difficult not deny such an earnest, hopeful request…but, where to start? Well, Weiss knew where, but that didn't make the topic any less uncomfortable.

"My father is an impressive man." Weiss explained as she leaned on her usual slab of brick. "He may not be many things, and the things that you can define him as would be distasteful even in the worst of company…but, for all of that, for what he is, and what he isn't, all of it is impressive. No matter my views, no matter my station, that was the sort of person I felt destined to become…an impressive person…however, as I am, that's impossible."

Pyrrha frowned deeply, she hadn't expected such a response. The Schnee family itself was prestigious, anyone would be a fool to argue otherwise. "Weiss, that's just not true."

"Yes, it is." Weiss wondered when she had finally figured that out, but it was long before graduation. "There's something you need to understand, Pyrrha. You never truly wanted your fame. For all the power it gives you, you truly don't need it, nor do you truly desire it…but I need his power. I need his status. To keep the promises I made to the people I care about, I would have had to sell my soul. I would have had to become a carbon copy of his image, and bend to his willpower…and I didn't do that."

"No one wanted you to."

"But I still _should have_." Weiss gave Pyrrha a sideways glance. "I'd rather not elaborate the point."

"How am I to understand if you don't?"

Weiss bit her lower lip. "How many Faunus die yearly under my father's thumb? How many of my father's personal friends line their pockets with the blood, sweat, and tears from labor forces? How many unknowing people are dragged into his questionable practices, none the wiser that what they're doing is wrong? There are dust shops remnant wide buying from him, they're perpetuating the need for even more underpaid labor…trafficking…who knows what else."

"Weiss, your father's sins are not your own to bear." Pyrrha replied earnestly. "You have to believe that."

"You could be right. However, the question comes down to this; how many lives have I thrown away carelessly, all for the sake of my own?"

"I…" Pyrrha nipped on the tip of her tongue. "Weiss, I…" She shook her head. "I don't know what I could possibly say to that."

"Because there is nothing _to_ say." Weiss laminated. "The numbers are staggering, and that's my fault."

"No…" Green eyes closed behind closed lids. "No, it's not your fault."

"It will always be my fault." Weiss pressed, without even a flinch. "I'm not looking for pity, or to be consoled. I'm telling you the truth. I chose to walk away from Atlas. I disobeyed my father, and flagrantly disregard his warnings. I chose to put down the responsibility given to me, knowing that doing so would be the same as claiming that hundreds of thousands of lives were less significant than my own…" Weiss bit her lip then. "I didn't act for the greater whole. Not for Faunus, or for humans…I acted for myself, Pyrrha…and I know that what I did has lasting repercussions."

There were millions of words Pyrrha could have spewed from her mouth. Several she considered as they stood at their post quietly. Still, she was not a daft woman. She was not blind to the one simple fact that sat between every word Weiss used to berate herself. When it came to life experience, Weiss had an upbringing that was akin to an untamed foal. One that had been beaten too many times. One that had been too terrified to bolt, and too reliant on the man that kept breaking her until it was too late.

Words wouldn't heal her. Even if they had such a power, they would have to come from elsewhere. So instead of saying anything at all, Pyrrha wordlessly moved closer to Weiss and slowly slung an arm around her and pulled her close. Inwardly Pyrrha hoped the gesture would be enough.


	26. Chapter 26

Being stationed along the wall was easy, but going home was hard. Although they lived directly across from each other, just as they always had, Pyrrha could feel the divide. Maybe it had always been there. Maybe, before, she was content to ignore the fact that the woman she cared about was just out of reach. Even if that had been the case before, Pyrrha was far from content now as she sat on her front stoop.

Looking forlornly at the door to the other household, she wondered if Weiss was thinking about her, too.

"It's a door, not a Grimm you know." Jaune said, socking Pyrrha out of her thoughts as he hung out of his bedroom window.

Green eyes lifted to glare at him softly. She wasn't truly angry, merely startled, and the stern features melted away when her heart didn't feel crammed in her throat. "How long have you been watching me?"

"I don't know…awhile, I guess. I think about the fifth sigh, give or take…" Jaune trailed off. "What's got you so down, anyway?"

"Nothing at all." Pyrrha said, and she knew it to be the truth. "I'm just fine, and things are going well."

It was the truth, too. Not a single lie woven between the words. Things were going well, far better than she expected, at any rate. Even if she couldn't say for sure that Weiss would take her feeling seriously, the white haired woman hadn't completely brushed her off either. It would take time, but she was sure she could earn the shorter woman's affections. She had the distinct impression Weiss wanted to give them as well, and yet, hadn't the slightest idea how to go about doing that.

"Okay, everything is going well. That's good then. So, what's with the sighing?" Jaune asked.

"I just have something on my mind." Pyrrha said, standing, and leaning on the brick wall. "Something that I don't think should be made public quite yet. Honestly, I'm not sure there's anything to speak of, but…" Her green eyes drifted back to the door just down the alleyway. "What would you do, Jaune, if you had a friend with a troubled past? If that friend confided in you? Furthermore, what if that friend did it in such a way, that you feared doing anything that might hurt them more?"

"What would I do, huh? Hmm..." Jaune seemed to think on this before shrugging. "Beats me." He said as he looked across the street. "Weiss isn't the kind of person to confide in people at all, so if she has told you something, maybe that's enough."

"How did you know it was Weiss?" Pyrrha asked, completely floored by the actually correct guess. Normally, his cluelessness was baffling, not to mention borderline offensive. Yet, he had understood the hidden nature of her question perfectly, and she demanded to know how on Remnant that was even possible.

"I don't know how to put my finger on it." Jaune said thoughtfully, squinting at something unseen by Pyrrha. "It's like, this feeling I get. When I see you two together, it just seems like that's the way it should be." He smirked then. "I don't why it comes to mind, only that it does."

Pyrrha smiled sadly at him. "I feel the same way, but, I'm not so sure that Weiss does. I think she wants to, but she's afraid to."

"Well, you're doing better than I ever did…" He deadpanned. "I'm lucky Weiss even puts up with me at all. Think about the way I acted. I was such a jackass looking back on it all, but, there's nothing I can do about that now, is there?"

"You meant well." Pyrrha offered.

"Road paved to hell, and all that." Jaune said, waving the matter aside. "You mean well too, don't you?"

"Was there ever any doubt of that?"

"No, but, I care about you. You'll always be my partner, and you're a really great person…but I know how you are, Pyr." He said in only the way an ex-boyfriend ever could. "You'll do anything you can, and everything you can…but sometimes, you just can't, you know? Weiss can be really, really, rude when she pushes people away…I don't want you to get hurt if all this backfires. I know how much it sucks to be on the receiving end of it."

"However, your heart was in the right place." Pyrrha told him with a soft smile. One that faded a little as she continued. "Besides, if you hadn't taken an interest in her, I would have never seen all of the truly good qualities in you. There's more to you than meets the eye, and I was very fortunate to see that side of you. I know you don't believe me, and that probably you never will, but you're a good man."

"Yeah, well, you're a good woman." He told her. "Not that you need any advice, but, if it were me, I'd go talk to her. If I knew I had even half the chance that you do, I wouldn't be sitting on my front stoop."

Pyrrha rolled her eyes at this. "I don't want to bother her."

"What bother? Go knock on the door." Jaune asked. "Take it from me, the worst she can possibly do is slam it in your face…"

"You would know, wouldn't you?" Pyrrha shook her head, laughing a little bit. "Now, I know I've been a little persistent, but I doubt she would do that."

"Then why are you still just sitting there?"

That, Pyrrha had to concede, was a very good question...

* * *

Life inside of the RWBY household was as tense as ever, but this time, it wasn't Yang simmering on a low boil. It was Blake, usually the most unperturbed of the bunch.

Yang didn't want to believe that her father was spending all of his spare time drinking himself into oblivion, but she knew her uncle wouldn't lie about something like that. Blake certainly would not have passed along the information unless she herself had verified that it was true. It was obvious by Blake's ranting that she was less than impressed.

"So, what the hell's his problem then?" Yang asked somewhat annoyed that the newest addition in the family was being pointedly avoided. "It's not like I asked him to raise her."

"No, Yang, you didn't, but I think that's the problem." Blake felt conflicted. "He put all of his eggs in one basket, and it blew up in his face. Instead of realizing that nothing's really changed, he's just wallowing in his booze." She wanted the best for everyone, but Tai was just a satellite concern of hers. It might have been a terrible way to think. She didn't defend the cold stance on the subject, but, she didn't change her outlook to sympathize, either. "He's acting like an idiot..."

"He's my dad, Blake."

"Yours? Yeah…" Blake said then. "But he's not Ace's, and frankly, I think I have a right to be a little pissed off that he won't even pull himself together for your sake…and what about Ruby? You know she's going to take it personally if this keeps up. She'll blame herself, and right now, I don't think she can handle that very well."

"Dad's never been perfect. Always toed the line. Ruby doesn't talk about it, but she knows he has a hard time with it. Thing is, if what you say is true, there's no one to really blame. He fell apart, and that happens sometimes." Yang said. "That's what drunks do when they fall off the wagon. They drink. Sobering up again isn't the easiest thing in the world. You can't just flip a switch."

"He was more or less clean for years, Yang. He waited for Raven for years…all for nothing." Blake slammed her glass on the table with a little more force than she had been expecting, sending her hot tea sloshing over her fingers. "Don't you understand? He spent years of his life waiting for her, and for no good reason. Now, instead of choosing a different path, he's still just sitting there, and he's still just waiting….god only knows what the hell he's waiting for this time."

"Anyone's guess." Yang looked down at the steaming liquid. Blake was used to intense heat, being burned in and of itself something she had gotten used to because Yang could become a literal walking ball of fire. Still, the reddening flesh should be tended to, and Yang grabbed Blake's hand and dabbed it with a dry napkin. "If it makes you feel any better, I don't know what he's thinking, either."

"He better think about pulling his head out of his ass…"

"Blake, listen, I'm happy that you're angry for Ruby's sake. It means you don't like my dad being selfish any more than I do." Yang began, her thumb trailing over the burns that were already almost healed. Aura was a powerful thing. "You really care about her, and you care about Ace...but, being angry doesn't help anyone, and really only torments yourself. Ruby and I learned that a long time ago. You can be angry at an addict all you want, but that won't solve the actual problem."

"You're his daughter…" Blake said leaning forward, hunched over in her seat, her eyes watching the roaring fire keeping the home warm. "Don't you think you should say something to him?"

"The urge to drink, I get it from both ends." Yang said. "If I can put it down, so can he." Then she shrugged. "Not going to lie though, there are a lot of things that keep me up at night. I don't have answers for many of them. It's easier to toss back a few to get that warm feeling in your gut…it does quiet the doubts. Well, for a short while anyway, they always come back…it's never the answer, but, when you don't have any answers at all, I guess in some assbackwards way, drinking makes sense."

Blake nodded at this, her voice gentle as she asked her next question. "What do you have doubts about?"

"Oh, a lot of things." Yang shrugged. "It's always been that way. Live the life I have, you'll always have an unanswered question or two."

"Right…"

"Listen, I'd be lying if I said none of those questions could be aimed at you. I mean, you're a pretty big part of my life, Blake, and I value that. It's just that I've been on the other side of the coin, too. I know commitment isn't your strongest suit." Yang leaned back in her chair then, wincing as it creaked in protest. "But, Ruby's my sister. That's all she's ever been, so it's not like I can sit you down and give you the shotgun talk like some lunatic parent. It's not my place."

"Yet, you do have questions…" Blake finished.

"I won't ask them, though." Yang told her. "As long as you're good to her, that's all that matters. Eventually, all good things come to an end. I think life's going to get a lot harder before it gets easier. It's when the bad stuff comes around that I worry, and that's where most of my questions come from. A lot of 'what if', a lot of fear, past things I don't want repeated in her life, or mine…and then, there's Ace to think about. The more she sticks around, the more I think that we have way more on our hands than we realize."

"We knew this wouldn't be easy." Blake had thought the worst when she had first seen Ace. Looking back, it was hard not to imagine the little girl around, but that didn't ease Blake's analytical mind any less. "I have to believe that raising her won't be too hard as time goes on, either...everything will be fine, mostly because it has to be."

"But, you don't really believe that, do you?"

Blake shook her head. "No, not always. Sometimes, I don't."

She told Ruby that there was no way they could raise a child. In some ways, Blake still doubted they could. The cynical part of her mind promised her that somehow, they were going to screw this up. Blake had never said it, but, it was what she thought of in the back of her mind. Blake was sure, on some level, Yang could see those doubts clearly. Blake bet Yang even shared some of them.

"So, what are you going to do about your dad?" Blake asked then. "Or, rather, I guess the question is, what do you want to do?"

"I want to kick him in the head and knock some damn sense into him." Yang bit out. "Since that's not going to work, I'll settle for sitting here and waiting for him to realize life's going on ahead of him whether he likes it or not."

"He might not ever pull himself out of it." Blake warned. "Are you going to be okay with that?"

"Honestly? Ace is my family." Yang shook her head. "I'd be really pissed if he never came around, never took the time to be part of her life. It's his right if he doesn't want anything to do with her…can't say it wouldn't hurt though, raise more questions, things like that."

"What kind of questions?"

Yang only shrugged. "The shitty kind that you really don't want to hear, and I really don't want to say."

* * *

Weiss cursed to herself.

On her budget, she didn't keep the kind of clothing that she used to. Everything came from the outlet mall, and that meant that she had to try twice as hard to look immaculate. Impossibly priced dressed were no longer part of her spending. She couldn't even buy something nice from the high end dress shops around Vale that mass produced finer articles of clothing. Weiss had learned to love rummaging around in sale bins for a new shirt or two. The occasional skirt off the rack was acceptable, provided it was on sale. However her days of mindless purchasing were over.

She couldn't justify the expenses, but neither could she accept looking so plain for an outing with someone she might be interested in.

And Pyrrha had well and truly wanted to spend time together outside of their homes. She even called it a date, which did nothing more than scare Weiss, but with every ounce of hesitance possible, she accepted. Weiss had no idea what commoner's date consisted of, but she knew Pyrrha would keep it simple. The redheaded woman learned to hate extravagance, and Weiss perfectly understood the sentiment.

Still, a night on the town demanded more than her current wardrobe offered. It demanded more confidence than she had.

"You know, you can pick anything. It'll probably just end up on the floor anyway." The blonde woman teased.

"Yang! Of all the conclusions to jump to. Pyrrha's not like that, she would never encourage something so…so…vile!"

"Love making is vile now? Never got the memo, so good to know." Yang grumbled as she played with her little sister, stacking blocks one on top of the other. "Honestly though, would it really be so bad to share something like that with her. Or even just admit you'd want something like that down the line? It's not like I don't already know you've got a thing going on with her."

"For your information, we do not have a _thing_." Weiss replied haughtily. "We're merely very good friends."

"You sure Pyrrha knows that?" Yang shot back effortlessly.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Weiss, cut the bullshit." Yang sighed at length. "If you hadn't taken the same combat classes I did, I would honestly think you've never once seen a dick in your entire life."

"Language! Your little sister is sitting right there, for goodness sake. If you keep spouting that kind of filth, one day she'll start parroting you." Weiss protested, praying she could push aside the entire conversation. "If you must be crass, say bull-dung and penis like the rest of the world."

"One, who the hell says 'bull dung'. Two, I don't care what you call it, they repulse the crap out of you." Yang said with a roll of her eyes. "Three, I'm not going to soften my speech just because I have a baby sister. Besides, that's not the point, and you can't derail me from this. I know you're a lesbian, I think everyone else does too. It's not that hard to figure out, but, even assuming that it was, Pyrrha cares about you."

"I care about her too." Weiss said. "She's a very dear friend."

Yang groaned, smacking her own face in annoyance. "And people say I'm the airhead…" She blew out a hot breath as Ace charged into the stack of blocks, sending them scattering across the room. Then she ran behind the dresser, waiting for Yang to build it back up again. Reaching out to grab a few of the blocks again, Yang cast her friend a meaningful glance. "Weiss, do you really mean it? That you care about her, I mean?"

"Of course I do." The white haired woman said. "Not that it's any of your business."

"Then own up to that." Yang murmured. "If you mean it, show her how you feel. It took Pyrrha a long time to come to terms with everything. I know you're used to taking your dear sweet time with everything you do, but the longer you wait, the more you stand to really hurt her."

"I have no intention of hurting her."

"Doesn't mean you won't."

"It also not a guarantee that I will."

"It's going to get you hurt too." Yang reminded her. "I don't want to see that happen."

"Why not?" Weiss asked darkly. "I deserve it, don't it?"

"God, I hate when you make me do this." Yang shoved herself up from the floor, making her way across the room as she used her strength to turn Weiss to face her, demanding to be seen. "I'm waiting…you know what I want to hear."

"You'll be waiting for a long time then." Weiss said, looking down at the floor, finding it all the more interesting.

"Don't push me out. You know I won't let you, so let's not go there." Yang said, slowly backing her friend into the wall, the soft thump, indicating the gentle impact. "I've got you, okay? You're safe. Just say it."

"But-"

"Nope. You're fine, Weiss." Yang interrupted. "You're good. We've got your back. Always have, always will. You'll be okay."

Weiss tried to look away, but Yang wouldn't let her, getting right in the shorter woman's face. There was a wetness in blue eyes. Weiss began to shake.

"Hey…hey…Weiss, chill." She coaxed, but Weiss had none of it, so Yang gently slapped at her jaw, the rough handing getting the attention she wanted. "Chill. That bad place in your past? Don't go there." Yang said again softly, finally able to meet icy blue eyes without the woman recoiling. "Don't fight me. You can do this…"

"No…I can't."

"You've got to." Yang said. Weiss looked away again, earning another soft smack. "Nu-un. No, you're not allowed to do that. Eyes on me. You keep them on me. You stay in the here and now. You know what I want to hear…so just say it."

She knew what Yang wanted to hear…and frankly what she needed to just come to terms with. For Weiss, it was impossible to do without shattering like glass. Yang knew that, it was what she was expecting, but Weiss didn't want to break anymore. She was tired of breaking down her walls. There was only so much she could do on her own. If that made her a coward, then it only proved her point.

She didn't deserve to be happy, not after everything she turned her back on.

She looked away again as if seeing some terrible monster waving at her from the void. Once again, Yang gently smacked her for it. Blue eyes met lilac again. "Yang...I can't."

"You can. You just have to get used to saying it, Weiss." Yang told her, adjusting the woman's face yet again, trying her best to keep Weiss grounded in the moment. "You just have to say it once without having a breakdown, and then…the other times…I swear, it'll get easier."

Yet, have a breakdown she did as tears finally fell from her eyes. "I'm irredeemably gay! Are you happy now?!" Weiss sobbed, hating herself all the more as Yang rolled her eyes.

Sighing, Yang defaulted to pulling Weiss tightly against her. Letting the shorter woman silence her sobs in the fabric of her shirt. "Without the breakdown would have been nice." Yang told her dryly, wrapping her arms around Weiss all the same. "You're still good. World didn't end."

Weiss shook her head wordlessly as if to argue, but Yang held her more securely.

"Yeah, you are." Yang told her firmly, not taking any denials for an answer. "I just wish you'd start believing that..."

* * *

Pyrrha came to the door late that evening ready to take Weiss on her date, but it was Yang who opened the door. "Hey, Pyr." Yang smirked, but it didn't reach her eyes. "Weiss is in our room."

"Still getting ready?" Pyrrha asked, but then Yang shook her head.

"Afraid not." Yang grabbed her jacket throwing it over her shoulders. "It's probably better if you and Weiss stay here. There was an episode earlier, and I don't think she's really in the right mindset for an outing. That's fine though. You guys have the house to yourselves. Ruby and I are going to take Ace on a little camping trip, and Blake decided to come along. They've already gone on ahead, so I should catch up." Patting Pyrrha on the shoulder as if to fortify her, Yang headed out, closing the door behind her.

It wasn't the first time she had been left alone in this household, having acted as an emergency babysitter for Ace in the past. It was strange stepping through the house when it was so eerily silent though. She made her way to the room Weiss stayed in with Yang. The woman sat on her bed, looking lost and forlorn as she looked up to see Pyrrha standing there.

"I realized, I don't have anything nice to wear." It was a weak attempt at a joke, and perhaps a partial excuse, but it all fell to pieces as she said it.

"You could have worn a burlap sack, and I would still think you to be entirely beautiful." Pyrrha said, and she completely meant it too. That's what made seeing Weiss so upset, so unbearably difficult. Even like this, she was beautiful, impossible as it was. She took a few steps forward, tentatively sitting beside Weiss. Trying her best to figure out what Weiss might be comfortable with.

With nothing to go on, she settled with taking the woman's hands in her own.

Pyrrha wanted to do more, but it was hard to justify doing that when it was obvious that her affections for Weiss were not the platonic sort. With the two of them sitting upon a bed, even a simple thing such as embracing her could be misconstrued. In fact, in this moment of weakness, it would be. She couldn't take advantage of Weiss, didn't dare to even let such a thought enter into her head. It was obvious that the demons plaguing her were not the sort that Pyrrha could simply chase away.

Dearly, she wanted to. The hopelessly romantic part of her heart constricting painfully at the thought that there was nothing she could do. Her mind at war with it, coming up with all sorts of plans to ward away the evils that could possibly shatter this woman in front of her. All of it seemed futile though. Most plans too bold, others simply not good enough. What was she to do?

Pyrrha forced a small smile, one hand lifting up to cup a cheek that was colored pink by a blush. The reasons for it negative, and therefore, terrible by nature. Gently, she smoothed away a tear, the wetness clinging to her thumb in a powerful way. It felt incredibly heavy, far too taxing, and Pyrrha felt lost in it. Worst still, the pools of blue eyes threatened to overflow with even more of them.

It was painful to see, so she closed her eyes and sighed.

"I would do everything in my power to help you. I would protect you from whatever it is that terrifies you so greatly. However, I can only do that if I know the foe I am to face." Pyrrha knew nothing. "Tell me what I should do. I will do it." She would probably never know the sorts of twisted shadows that had crept into her love's mind over the years. The murmurs, self-doubt, history itself making for a sludge that was easy to drown in. Such a cesspool was a damaging thing.

The idea that Weiss had waded through such a thing on her own, was not something that Pyrrha was willing to consider. A more pragmatic part of her soul reminded Pyrrha rather urgently that Weiss had her own team, her own family. It was best not to forget that.

When she opened her eyes, she fully expected to have gained the blue eyed woman's attention. Perhaps even soothed away some measure of the discomfort that lingered there when she had first walked in. However, Weiss merely looked smaller for all of Pyrrha's efforts. Confused and fragile, as though she didn't know what could be done to save her from the repetitious thoughts swirling in her mind.

Weiss, however, could only think of one thing. One gesture that didn't sound or seem ludicrous. Something that Yang would do any time one of the members of team RWBY crumpled in on themselves…an act that though none of them admitted, happened more often than not. "Hold me." It was a simple act that among her team was as common a request as a person could get.

There was no stipulation, no added meaning. Just comfort, and Weiss craved it so badly that it physically hurt.

The expected warmth of a hug didn't come, and when she looked up at Pyrrha, she found the woman hesitating.

"Are you sure that will help?" Pyrrha asked, unsure, because it was one of the things she wanted to do in the first place. One of thing things, that, given the setting, she refrained from doing. She didn't want to harm Weiss further. "Are you positive you wish for me to do that?"

Weiss sighed then, realizing the depth of her request. What it might mean for Pyrrha, who had a team consisting of a two males, and therefore an entirely different team dynamic. The idea of personal space -a boundary line that Yang and Ruby had thoroughly trampled on upon her first day at Beacon- was something Pyrrha personally held in high regard.

Pyrrha Nikos was prim, proper, and kept dignity clutched tightly in the palms of her hands when and where she could.

In spite of all of that, and the complicated emotions that such thoughts inspired, Weiss nodded. "Yes." She said softly as if she was unsure of the pure magnitude of it all. Yang made the action a simple thing, but when Pyrrha held her, Weiss realized it would never be simple. There was more to Pyrrha's desires than merely to comfort her. On some level, even if she voiced it or not, Pyrrha wanted to hold Weiss in her arms.

She wanted this…whatever _this_ was…between them.

It did nothing to silence the doubts, but, at the very least, they seemed much less terrifying when cocooned in Pyrrha's embrace.


	27. Chapter 27

**Chapter 27**

As huntresses it was a common hobby for the team to camp outside. The wilderness did them all some good. In some part, it was to maintain their most basic training. Another part was that it helped to remind them of the luxuries they often took for granted back in the cities. Hunting for food was different than hunting Grimm, and maintaining a secure camp was the cornerstone of any successful mission.

While it was true that there weren't any Grimm in this particular area of woods, they still did the usual routine perimeter checks every few hours just to be in the safe side. Ruby poked at the fire they had going, watching as Ace got herself covered in the sticky marshmallow that was just cool enough for her to eat on as she sat in Yang's lap.

The young Faunus gobbled down the sticky treats one right after the other, Yang couldn't seem to roast them fast enough.

"We've created a monster." She sighed, doing her best not to overcook the white glob on the stick. "I thought you were bad with the cookies, but this is a whole new level."

"You should know all about that." Ruby said, setting her own marshmallow completely on fire before blowing it out and eating it. "Saving grace, she can't roast her own marshmallows with body heat."

"I only did that once."

"The ceiling has scorch marks to prove it, too." Ruby shot back with a smirk. "Just think, what if she had a semblance like yours?"

"Not likely, but I do think about it. I wonder what her semblance is, what it's like." Yang trailed off with a frown. "I know mine is actually pretty dangerous, all things considered, but I wonder what my mom's was like."

"Maybe ask dad, or Qrow..."

"I'd rather not bring that up. It'll just put them in a bad mood, and I don't think I'll actually get any answers...never did before, anyway." Yang explained.

"But, it is bothering you, right?"

"It's just, sometimes I wonder if Ace got a shitty luck of the draw. Ozpin said I was the weird one, but I kind of don't want to believe him…it just separates me more from the whole family thing. I don't like thinking that might be one of the reasons Raven abandoned me."

"Does anyone really have a bad semblance though?" Ruby asked.

"I just don't know, Ruby." Yang sighed, catching a sticky little hand before it could get itself tangled in her long hair. Instead, she offered Ace yet another marshmallow that was just the lightest bit toasted. "I'd like to think not, but who can really tell?"

"And I'd like to think we have better judgement than that, Yang." Ruby bristled, before poking the fire again. "I mean, yeah, some are probably way more useful than others, but, I don't like classifying them as something good or bad. is just another way to separate people into groups." Ruby set fire to yet another marshmallow, this time plunking it between two cholate chip cookies before eating it. "I don't like thinking a dangerous semblance can be treated the same as a dangerous person."

"Even if they can't control their semblance?"

"Yang..."

"No, really, Ruby. What if the good person is dangerous just because their semblance is?" Yang posed thoughtfully. "We don't get to choose the lot in life we're born with. It's not fair. With all of the Grimm that Ace keeps attracting, I keep worrying that maybe her semblance is a bad thing. That Ozpin's right when he tells us not to unlock her aura."

"Sis, you're thinking too hard." Even as she said it, she was inclined to agree, even if she didn't like it. "Okay, so she gathers a few Grimm here and there, I thought that's why we agreed to bring her with us when we went camping. To get her used to being in places where Grimm tend to be, if anything it'll probably be a good thing in the future if she wants to be a huntress. Think about it, instant Grimm homing device, especially if Grimm seem to like her. They're a whole lot easier to kill if they aren't trying to eat you."

"I don't think I want her being a huntress. In fact, anything but a huntress is okay in my book." Yang pointed out. "I'm going along with this to prove myself wrong, and that's the extent of it…"

"Camping's fun too, don't forget." Ruby laughed. "People don't know what they're missing."

A black shadow came soundlessly from behind the bushes. "I agree, camping is fun." Blake said smirking as Yang almost jumped up from her surprise.

"Damn it, Blake!" Yang groused. "Don't do that. You freak me out when you don't make any noise."

"And you freak me out when you walk around the forest as a fireball." Blake returned casually. "You know I try not to make any sounds when I'm on patrol." Setting down her weapon in a locked position, Blake sat down beside Ruby to see the cookie carnage that had gone on while she was away. They'd brought four bags of marshmallows, but two had already been demolished, and so had the potato chips. She didn't mind, she had brought back a snack of her own. A fresh fish from the nearby river that she had already cleaned, gutted, and skewered before returning.

Reclining back on the nearby bolder, she set to cooking her prize over the open flame.

"I'm all for fresh fish, but that's a little too fresh." Ruby murmured, seeing the fish look up into nothingness, part of the stick sticking out of its mouth.

"And that's what you get for going on solo missions all the time." Yang said with a laugh. "If you camp out with Blakey as much as I do, you have to get used to seeing her go hunting."

"Weiss would have a heart attack." Ruby said with a shake of her head. She had to catch fish before too while out in the field, but she hated doing it.

"Which is why I don't cook my fish like this in front of her." Blake said with a smirk, far too pleased with her meal to worry about anything else. "As a person, I do my best to downplay my heritage as much as possible so I don't scare humans. Weiss is very tolerant of my quirks, and I'm happy for that. In return, I try not to torture her with my heritage too much, if it can be avoided. If I thought this would bother you, I would have refrained."

"It's not that it bothers me if you do it. All the same, I don't tend to hunt if I can avoid it. I'd rather eat food that can't stare back at me." Ruby said with a somewhat self-deprecating smirk. "If you want to eat it, that's up to you. I do sort of feel bad for the little guy though."

Blake sighed at this, partially relieved, and partially guilty for what she knew she would have to say next. "I have to admit that I take some level of joy in feline habits. For example, hunting for my own food. I don't get that same sense of accomplishment from pulling a meal out of a freezer and cooking it. I just don't feel as if I've done anything to really deserve it."

The sisters said nothing to this, not that Blake expected them to. Yang always tiptoed around such issues carefully, and Ruby always took the time to slowly consider them before asking any sort of questions. It helped that they were all huntresses in every aspect of the word. As keen trackers, and they all hunted down their own food and Grimm alike while on missions. Preserved food only went so far, and they had to be in top form to defend against Grimm. The laws of nature defined them so heavily, it shouldn't have been a surprise that they had nothing to add.

Blake would be lying to herself if she didn't admit that she felt the need to clarify, though.

"It's not a big deal, or anything. All Faunus have mannerisms that just come naturally to us, and, in some ways I like it better out here than I do in the city." At that, Blake looked over to Ace. "I'm not saying I want to live in the wilds, or anything, but coming out here every so often feels good to me. It's relaxing in a different way, and I personally feel like it's important that Ace has a connection to that…"

"We get it, Blake, it's fine." Yang said with a smirk.

"Do you though?"

"On some level, actually, I think I do." Ruby said, looking up to the stars. "I feel the same way after a Grimm hunt." Ruby said softly. "The more I take down, the fewer there are to cause damage someplace else. It's like I can sleep easier at night knowing I did the best I could to protect people. That comforts me more than sitting around in the house all day...every time I'm out here, it reminds me why I wanted to be a huntress, and I think no matter what, it's important to remember that..."


	28. Chapter 28

**Chapter 28**

Back at the house, Weiss and Pyrrha laid together for a long time. They both lost track of the hours ticking by a while ago. Weiss was mulling things over in her head, and Pyrrha was giving her the silence to do so. The two of them basking in relative peace. Their slow breaths were the only thing that broke the stillness of the air, but eventually, Weiss found her voice.

"Why me?" It was a soft question, sudden and harsh against the serenity that had chosen them.

"Why not you?" Pyrrha returned, the reply as simple as it could get.

Both questions were valid. Both were reasonable. Both were even expected to the point of frivolity. Both women had asked them anyone, a testament to the words that needed to be said.

There was once a time Weiss would have prided herself on every little bit of perfection her family name afforded her. Why not Weiss Schnee indeed? She had money back then. She had the clout. Weiss even had the will to use it.

In her naivety, Weiss believed that the question Pyrrha voiced, and ones like it, were the questions on everyone's mind. Weiss was of a select few with such an upbringing. Such unfathomable privilege that it was to be expected.

Why not someone as beautiful as her? As wealthy as her? As influential as her? Why not choose to be absorbed into the Schnee family? Why not choose the immaculate lifestyle of the rich and famous? Why not pay the price of just a little conformity, and adopt bigotry?

Why not?

It wasn't until Weiss had gone to Beacon and learn about Blake, that she truly began to understand the true magnitude of that question. There were so many good answers as to why not. More than Weiss would ever want to admit. Sadly, she couldn't truly explain any of it the way she wanted to, so she focused on the obvious detail.

"Why not, you ask..." Weiss murmured darkly. "Why stoop so low, Pyrrha? Why choose someone with such a tainted past? Before me, there was only Jaune. He's too pure to be compared to someone such as myself. Too noble for his own good. I don't understand how you could ever make such a strange connection. What could you ever possibly see in me?"

Pyrrha laughed at that, eyes closing tiredly as she shook her head. "You two are actually quite similar, though I doubt you'd ever believe that."

"You're right." Weiss said. "I don't."

"A pity, all the same." Pyrrha replied.

"Care to explain, or am I just to wonder?"

Pyrrha's fingers trailed little circles, noticing that Weiss was so very soft to the touch. "There's this thread of self-deprecation that runs through the both of you." She explained slowly, following the loops her fingers made with her eyes. "Although you both deal with the negative perception of yourselves differently, you both only see negative things. Never the good." Pyrrha trailed off then, her arms tightening the embrace, her lips ghosting over smoothed porcelain skin. "Beyond that, you demand more of yourselves than might otherwise be fair."

"Me and Jaune?" Weiss huffed. "You are delusional."

"Am I?" Pyrrha asked. "Or are you just afraid to admit that you don't find Jaune half as annoying as you pretend to?" Pyrrha accused gently, her smirk hard to suppress.

"Oh, the man is aggravating." Weiss shot back. "I won't pretend otherwise."

"I believe that's the heart of the issue. It's why you aren't as close with him as anyone would like, and why he was so enamored with you at first." Pyrrha wanted Weiss to understand, but didn't know how best to go about that. Instead she placed a gentle kiss on the nape of her neck. "Both of you, in many ways, bring out the most honest sides of each other. As flawed as those sides might be, they're also quite endearing. Neither of you choose to acknowledge that, though…"

"Did you forget that he wouldn't stop hitting on me for the longest time?"

"No, Weiss, strangely enough, I didn't forget that at all." Pyrrha laughed. "I believe any romantic endeavor would have been doomed to fail. However, that's not to say I don't think you shouldn't have given him a chance. In fact, if you had dated each other for a short time, you might have come out of it learning something about yourselves." Pyrrha shrugged then as she pulled away and sat up, looking down at the comforter she had been laying on. "I know he would have…"

"What do you think I could have possibly learned from dating a man, that I couldn't have learned elsewhere, such as with a woman?"

"It's not his gender, Weiss." Pyrrha chastised. "It has nothing to do with him being a male."

"Then what is it?"

"It was the time and place. Jaune as a person, and the factor of youth." Pyrrha said it so honestly, it was clear the redhead believed her own words without a shadow of a doubt. "It was the situation you were both in. Your personalities and personal struggles. All of it leads me to believe that if things had been different, the two of you might have become more well-adjusted people."

"I think you may be coming down with a cold." Weiss replied, lifting her hand to Pyrrha's forehead as if to check for a fever.

Pyrrha only grasped that calculating hand and kissed the back of it, as if to wordlessly apologize, without backing down. "Weiss, listen, I can't explain it very well, and obviously that lesson has been lost to time now..."

"Then why bring it up at all?"

"Because you asked." Pyrrha said softly. "That being said, I think that the two of you would have come out of any relationship with an impossibly deep friendship. Within that, I think you would have found an ally that you both so desperately needed at the time...I think, in some capacity, you both would have healed a lot of personal scars for your trouble."

"Yes, well, as interesting as that might be to think about, it didn't happen that way." Weiss bristled uncomfortably. "I'm still not altogether fond of him, either."

"Trust me, I know." Pyrrha said then, lifting a hand to take long strands of red hair away from her face. Then she reached over, doing the same to help Weiss school hers into some semblance of order. With crystal blue eyes revealed from the veil that covered them, there was no place for Weiss to hide. No place for her to cast her gaze that would keep Pyrrha away.

The thoughts rolling around in the depths her analytical mind were like a mirror to Pyrrha. "I still don't see how you expect for this to work." Weiss said then. "You're in love with a monster. There is no excusing that fact."

"Nobody thinks that."

"Nobody says it." Weiss shot back. "Thoughts and feelings are more complicated, you know. It's easier to sweep the matter under the rug, rather than just accept that I might just be a terrible person. We all willingly blind ourselves for less."

"Have you ever spoken to Blake about the matter?"

"Why would I?"

"Supposedly you're a monster, aren't you?" Pyrrha sighed at length. If she couldn't get Weiss to take comfort in heartfelt words, then perhaps the woman might listen to logic. Pyrrha prayed it so. "I cannot help but think that if you were so terrible, Blake would have something to say about it. I doubt she would let you around a Faunus as young as Ace. If she thought you to be the horrible person you say you are, she probably wouldn't even tolerate you."

"Oh please, the moment you turn to Blake for a morality check, is the moment you truly are a lost cause to society." Weiss licked her lips, old taboos and ill-fated words bubbling to the surface. All sorts of acerbic arguments and conjecture boiling in her mind. "Blake is hardly the activist she makes herself out to be. She put that aside when she entered Beacon."

"I doubt that..."

"To what degree?" Weiss hissed, biting on her lower lip with a scowl. "She's still passionate about the Faunus plight, of course, but I'd be willing to bet she would put our team before anything else."

"And this is a problem because?"

"If it came down to a choice of loyalty, the answer is just as twisted as my own." Weiss shot back. "That kind a favoritism can be very, very dangerous."

"Under that logic, Weiss, I'd be a monster too."

"The difference is, Pyrrha, Blake and I stood a real chance at doing something about all of this." Weiss said, her hand flailing towards the window, pointing outward into the city. "We could have upheaved so many troublesome things, and reformed them. If we had pressed for control in the right places respectively. We could have done something to fix so many broken systems…but we didn't…" She shook her head, her failings too numerous to name. "We chose not to."

"I hardly see how that makes you a monster."

"Because they aren't your sins, Pyrrha." Weiss shot back. "They're mine. Just likes Blake's sins are her own. I don't know how she lives with herself, and honestly, that's not my problem. I have my own guilt to sort through without asking about hers."

Pyrrha felt her lips tug upward at the hilarious hypocrisy of it all. "Then, I suppose I'm in love with a monster." Pyrrha replied evenly, tired amusement dripping from her voice. "Does that admittance please you in the slightest?" The wordless frown she earned was enough of a reply, and Pyrrha chuckled low and weakly. "What you need is a distraction. Tomorrow, we're going out for breakfast, and I won't hear another word about it."


	29. Chapter 29

**Chapter 29**

Tiny growls bubbled from the small Faunus as she gnawed on Blake's thumb, the older Faunus trying to pluck a flower out of the little girl's mouth.

"Yuck, Ace, don't eat flowers." Blake chided, discarding the mangled foliage and rubbing her hand on her pants.

Ace was hardly intimidated by the glare of disapproval as she scampered off in the dead of morning to find something else to attack. Blake rolled her eyes at this, as an all too sleepy Ruby stumbled out of the tent, nearly tripping over Ace in the process.

"Ruby, you could have gone back to sleep."

"No, no, it's fine. We're out here to keep up on our training anyway, it's about time for another routine patrol." Ruby yawned, blearily looking around for Ace, and finding her chasing after something.

"You don't need any practice." Blake deadpanned before a small smile fought its way across her features. She watched as Ruby stifled another yawn, her exhaustion made clear by the failed attempt. "I can talk Ace for a walk by myself, but the company is appreciated. Just don't feel obligated to go if you're sleepy."

"I don't know how I feel about this." Ruby said, still unsure about letting the girl go far from the camp. "It's not like I can see very well right now, and these woods aren't exactly safe for little kids to just run around in. We should probably both go, if you really insist on doing this right now."

"She'll be fine." Blake said, picking up the small Faunus, removing the young girl's shoes and socks. "Besides, we can't keep her cooped up in the tent. There's too many interesting things to chase and to smell. She'll be drawn by those tactile sensations, we might as well indulge her."

Ace mewed happily, wiggling her toes before trying to stand up and run off. Blake caught her by the back of her overalls, holding her in the air with a stern look. With adult ears flattened back, young ones followed suit. Amber and crimson met, the two Faunus keeping eye contact. An discussion happening between them without words, as if nothing truly needed to be said. Then, slowly, Blake placed Ace of the ground and the girl ran off ahead, stopping once to glance back.

She was waiting for approval, and eventually, Blake seemed to give it, as Ace rushed ahead.

"Shouldn't she at least keep her shoes on?" Ruby asked. "Ace isn't exactly very discerning about what she climbs on."

"That's why she's better off barefoot." Blake finally continued then, as if it were obvious. "It will be in her nature to listen to what her body tells her. Besides, the more she uses her claws, the less I have to clip them."

"I don't like this." ruby mumbled as Ace ran ahead, her feet hardly bothered by the prickly grasses that stuck up from the ground. "I can't see where she's going."

"I've got my eye on her, don't worry." Blake said with a flick of her Faunus ear. Something tickled it, probably one of the low hanging leaves, but she flicked it a few more times for good measure. It was an action she never had to worry about when she covered her ears, and it was one of the few times she missed her bow.

"You know, when you suggested an early morning walk, this wasn't exactly what I had I mind." Ruby said softly. "I thought the sun would actually be out."

"We can't do what we've been doing forever, you know." Blake said softly. "One day, and one day soon, we're going to have to start getting her used to living like a normal person. No more paper balls or things resembling cat toys, no more snarling or hissing at animals…no more romping around, or pouncing….no more _anything_ that makes her look like a cat." Blake shook her head then, all of the guilty little pleasures would be stripped away from Ace one by one, because for a Faunus growing up, that was just something that had to happen.

Through all of her sleepiness, Ruby could still pick up on the edge in Blake's voice. "This is kind of new…"

"It is, but then again, it isn't. We knew the topic would come up one day. It's about that time."

Ruby squeezed Blake's hand gently, a small measure of comfort in the dim light of the too early morning. "Can we talk about it?"

"I don't really know what there is to say."

"It bothers you, though."

Ruby hit the nail on the head, but Blake was no closer to explaining the conflict that waged war in her mind. Instead, she shrugged. If she couldn't give Ruby an exact answer, then the least she could do was give the next best thing. "I know I keep putting it off every time Weiss brings it up." Blake began slowly, her words drawn out as she tried to make them as clean as possible. "I keep thinking to myself, that Ace is still a baby. That she's still so young. What's one more week in the grand scheme? What's it going to hurt? What harm could it do?"

Ruby thought on it briefly. "It probably isn't all that bad. She's still little, she has plenty of time."

"I don't know about that." Blake said, pausing when Ace yowled, and came fleeing back to hide behind Blake. The young Faunus hissed at the direction she'd come running from. "She probably caught the scent of a nearby doe. Just keep walking, she'll follow."

"So long as it isn't a Grimm." Ruby frowned. "This is why I hate walking around in the dark. I like to see what's actually going on."

"I can see just fine." Blake replied. "Everything's alright."

They walked along in silence for a short time. Ace prowled around close by, unwilling to leave Blake's shadow until the scent of the animal grew distant again. It was only after the young Faunus forgot her fear and regained her confidence that she began to wander a little further away again.

"I never asked to be in charge of a kid, Ruby." Blake finally said softly so that only Ruby could hear her. "I never wanted this kind of responsibility. It wasn't anything I thought I could do, and I feel this really…tangible divide…because Ace is a Faunus, and the rest of you aren't…"

"We aren't judging you."

"No, no, that's not what I mean…" Blake said with a firm shake of her head as she watched Ace leap from a bolder and into some tall grass. Birds fluttered away in mass as Ace spooked them. "It's because she and I are both Faunus, cat Faunus in particular. You all look up to me for answers that I don't always have. So, I think to myself, how was I raised? What did my mom do? Those are….to be entirely honest, they're very distant memories. They're old, faded, and they're from a time when I was just a little girl myself."

"I think we all do that, at least a little." Ruby said earnestly. "For better or for worse, that's all any of us really have. If that helps us to raise Ace, then I don't think it's wrong for any of us to think that way. Not even you, or, maybe because you are a Faunus, especially not you."

"I wish it was that easy, but it's not." Blake's ears flattened down then.

"It can be." Ruby softly assured.

"Thinking like I have been, that's just denial, Ruby."

"No it's not.

"Yes, it is. It's self-indulgent denial, and it's not ever going to be anything else." Blake protested. "Telling Ace she can't do those things makes me hesitate. Teaching her that those aspects aren't okay…I freeze up just thinking about it. In some ways I feel like I'd telling her it's not okay to be herself…I don't want to be that person."

"Every Faunus grows out of that stuff eventually though, right?"

"It's not like we have a choice. Social engineering is a powerful thing. It's not so much that we grow out of it, but that we work around those urges in more socially accepted ways." That didn't mean Blake had to like it, though. "It's just, I don't want to teach her out of fear. I don't want her to think the world is out to hate her."

"But teaching her is the right thing to do." Ruby said. "It's our responsibility to do that."

"To what extent?" Blake asked then. "She's not a human, and it's cruel to ask her to be one…and that's the fine line you walk, when you teach a Faunus how…" Blake's attention got yanked away when Ace jumped, trying to catch a firefly buzzing around. Darting towards it, little hands outstretched after the glowing creature in the lessening darkness. "Well, for a lack of a better way to say it, _how_ _not to be a Faunus_ …"

"I think I understand what you're trying to say, and I think I know why you're rationalizing it this way. In the end of it all, you're just trying to be kind, but Blake..." Ruby trailed off, leaning close and resting her head on Blake's upper arm. "That kindness, it's so unbelievably cruel. The worst part is, you don't even realize how cruel you're being by trying to protect her."

"Maybe…" Blake sighed, as though she didn't fully believe that.

"Trying to shelter her from everything, that's the thing that's really cruel." Ruby said then with a smirk, gritting her teeth on that sad little tidbit, as if chewing on the sentence itself would make it less difficult to say. "The one thing I always hated, was when I was pat on the head and pushed to the side. Dad and Yang treating me like I was a baby. She's not going to be this little forever, and there comes a point when everyone else has to accept that."

"But where's the line Ruby?" Blake asked.

"I don't know, Blake." Ruby squinted as she noticed that Ace had indeed caught the lightning bug in her hands. The creature's soft glow slipped from between the cracks in small fingers. Excitedly, Ace opened her hands again, only for her prize to fly away. Small ears drooped as Ace plopped down onto her butt and began to cry. Ruby sighed, shaking her head at the scene, letting go of Blake's hand so that she could go and comfort the girl. "To be completely honest, I don't think there's a right answer…"


End file.
